Opposites Attract
by kate657
Summary: Nathan Scott is the star player of the Tree Hill High Ravens basketball team. Haley James is the best tutor at the school and best friends with Nathan's cousin. When the two meet, sparks fly, among other things.
1. Basketball Players vs Tutors

**Opposites Attract**

**Introduction**

This story is kind of an alternate universe. It still takes place in Tree Hill and the names are still the same and most of the same characters are still in it and are not really that different from who they are (personalities and what they're interested in, i.e., Peyton's still a cheerleader and an artist), so here's the deal:

Nathan Scott is the star player of the Tree Hill Ravens basketball team. He is the king of the school and he knows it. He also acts like it. His father is the overbearing, former basketball-obsessed player who tries to relive his glory days through his son.

Haley James is the best tutor at Tree Hill High and has one of the highest GPA's in her class. She is the best friend of Nathan's cousin, Lucas Scott (the son of Karen and Keith Scott), who is also on the Ravens basketball team. While Lucas and Nathan are as different as day and night, they have one common love: basketball. So, they are generally civil towards one another.

Basketball Players vs. Tutors (Chapter One) 

Nathan Scott walked out of his bedroom with his gym bag clutched in his hand. He walked into the kitchen and smiled as he saw his mother dressed for work. His mother had just become his Aunt Karen's business partner last year after Karen had gone to Italy for a while to take some cooking lessons. "Nate, where are your books?" she asked. Nathan stopped to think.

"They're in my locker at school," he replied.

"You didn't have any homework over the weekend?" Deb asked. Again, he stopped to think.

"Uh, no. The teachers didn't assign us anything on account of the long weekend. They wanted us to enjoy our vacation," he explained. Of course, he wasn't sure if that was true. He had no idea if he had homework. He rarely did homework because he had barely any time for it and he didn't want to do it. Besides, once he explained to his teachers that he had a late practice the day before, they let him get away with it and almost always forget to ask him about it the next day.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Deb asked. Nathan grabbed the toast off the plate.

"I'll eat as I go," he said.

"Come by the café today after practice, ok? Maybe you'll get a decent meal in you for once," his mom said. Nathan laughed as he left the room.

"Bye, Mom. I'll see you later," Nathan called as he walked out the door. He smiled as he saw that his father had already left for work. The last thing he needed was another lecture about how not to slack off during practice after a long weekend. He got into his car and started the engine. He pulled out of the driveway and started the ten-minute drive to school. Then he drove into the school parking lot and parked. He looked at his watch and sighed as he realized he was late again. He knew his teacher wouldn't make a big deal out of it, but he hated seeing the other students in his English class rolling their eyes. He got to his locker and pulled his books out and headed into his classroom.

"Mr. Scott, you're late," his teacher, Ms. Doyle, said. He nodded as he sat down.

"I'm sorry," he said. Ms. Doyle looked at him and he gave her a tired expression.

"I'll let it slide this time, but if you're late again this week, I'm going to have to give you a detention," she said. He nodded. Then, he turned to his friend, Tim and smirked. When the teacher asked a question about the book they were reading, there were at least a three minutes of silence until a brunette raised her hand and answered the question. "Very good, Miss James," Ms. Doyle said.

Nathan rolled his eyes. He didn't know who that girl was but he knew she always answered the questions right. He figured that she must have absolutely no life if she had time to do the reading. What kind of a sixteen-year-old had so much free time? He wondered to himself. Then, Tim tapped him on the shoulder and he forgot about the girl.

TWO HOURS LATER

"Hey, Hales," Lucas Scott said to Haley as he walked up to her locker.

Haley slammed her locker shut in frustration as she said, "Unbelievable!" Lucas looked at her in surprise. She was one of the most even-tempered people he knew.

"Something wrong?" he asked, smiling in amusement. Haley rolled her eyes.

"Ok, so you know my mom was sick over the weekend and my dad was out of town so I had to take care of her. I didn't get to type up an English paper, but I did get it done. The _one_ time I don't hand in an assignment on time and Ms. Doyle says she's going to dock me 10 because it'll be late," Haley said, as they started walking towards the cafeteria. They sat down at their usual table and Lucas looked at her sympathetically. He knew her grades were very important to her. "And then Nathan walks in twenty minutes late, probably didn't even start the assignment, let alone finish it, and she just says, 'I'll let it slide this time'. It just amazes me how differently a person is treated because they have the talent to throw a ball through a hoop," Haley fumed.

"Gee, thanks," Lucas said, looking at her. Haley looked at him and realized that she had insulted him. "You know, Haley, not all of us get treated like Nathan does, or if we do, we don't take advantage of it the way he does. And one could also argue the same about you," Lucas said.

"I can't throw a ball through a hoop," Haley said. He smirked at the memory of trying to teach her how to play basketball once. She couldn't even do it granny style the first few times she tried.

"I meant that because you're smart, people treat you different. Imagine how some teachers must treat Nathan. A lot of people know that he doesn't do so well in school," he said. Now, Haley was insulted. She was a tutor so she understood that everyone has different strengths and learns at different paces. So she took it very personally when people accused her of looking down on other students because they may not get good grades.

"I didn't say anything about that. I never said Nathan was stupid," she said.

"You implied it when you said he didn't start his paper," Lucas said. Haley shook her head.

"I said that because he never does his homework. That implies laziness. It doesn't have anything to do with how smart he is," she said defensively.

"Well, whatever it was intended to mean, what you said was still insulting one way or another," Lucas said.

"I'm sorry," she said. She hated it when Lucas got defensive whenever something basketball-related happened. Haley had a right to be pissed off. She had worked hard on the paper and because her mother was sick, she had to lose ten percent of a grade she worked hard to earn. Lucas nodded.

"Look, I'm sorry about your grade," he said.

"Nathan Scott, report to room 222," the main office secretary's voice said over the PA.

Nathan walked into his English class. Ms. Doyle was sitting at her desk and nodded for him to come in. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"You can take a seat," she said. He sat down at the desk behind him. "I'm concerned about you, Nathan," she said. He looked at her in confusion. "You're not doing very well in this course, you know," she said. He nodded. Everybody else knew it too.

"I'm trying," he said. Ms. Doyle looked down.

"Nathan, you've barely handed anything in. And the assignments that you handed in are not your best work," she said. "I'm very strung out over basketball and school work," he said, shrugging.

"Well, I don't think you want to give basketball up, do you?" Ms. Doyle asked. He shook his head. "Well, if your grades don't improve, I'm afraid that you won't be eligible to stay on the team," she said. He nodded.

"Now, is it because you really don't have time to do the work?" she asked. He looked at her in confusion. "Or are you having trouble understanding everything?" she asked. He was about to answer when a knock on the door. Ms. Doyle turned her head. "Miss James, what can I do for you?" she asked.

"I was hoping I could talk to you about something, but I can come back if you're busy," she said. Ms. Doyle looked at Nathan questioningly. He shrugged.

She looked at Haley and said, "Will it be quick?" Haley nodded. "Nathan, you can wait outside," Ms. Doyle said.

"No, that's ok. He can stay. I don't mind," Haley said.

"To answer your question, it's the second one," Nathan replied. Ms. Doyle nodded. Then, she turned her attention to the girl.

"I was hoping to talk to you about the assignment," Haley said. Ms. Doyle looked at her.

"Haley, I'm fine with you handing it in tomorrow on account of your track record with handing things in on time," she said.

"I know and I really appreciate it. But I was wondering if you would reconsider docking the ten percent?" Haley asked.

"Based on what?" Ms. Doyle said.

"The fact that I had it finished, but I couldn't type it up since I had to take my mom to the hospital because she has pneumonia," Haley said. Ms. Doyle's face wrinkled with concern.

"You said that she was sick. You never said that it was serious. Is she ok?" she asked. Haley nodded.

"She's fine now. They gave her medicine," Haley said.

"I won't dock ten percent. I'll dock three, but that's all I'll do. The assignment is still late," Ms. Doyle said. Haley sighed.

"Thank you," she said, starting to leave.

"Haley, wait a minute," Ms. Doyle said. Haley turned around. "Do you still tutor at the tutoring centre?" Ms. Doyle asked. Haley nodded slowly. The teacher looked at Nathan. "I have someone in need of tutoring," Ms. Doyle said. Haley nodded. "Would you be willing to tutor them?" Ms. Doyle asked.

Haley nodded. "Sure," she said. The teacher's face brightened.

"Nathan, is that ok with you?" Ms. Doyle asked. Haley turned to see that Nathan was looking at her. He nodded. Haley's spirits sagged. "Excellent," she said. Ms. Doyle got up and left, saying that she had to do run an errand and that they could both leave if they wanted. Nathan got up.

"So, when do you want to meet?" Haley asked. Nathan smirked.

"Never. Look, just make the paper look like I actually wrote it. And my name has two 't's at the end," Nathan said as he neared the door.

"Excuse me?" she asked. He turned around and looked at her.

"You heard me," he said. Haley shook her head. She couldn't believe his nerve.

"I hope that, for your sake, I didn't. I'm your tutor, not your slave," she said. Nathan shrugged.

"I don't need a tutor," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief. He started to leave again.

"Fine. I hope you like watching basketball then," she said. He turned around and looked at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Because there's no way you'll be playing if you fail English," Haley said.

"I'll be fine. I can handle school," he said. Haley couldn't help it when she said, "Really? Teachers usually don't ask me to tutor students who are 'handling school'." Nathan frowned.

"After practice," he said.

"What?" Haley asked.

"After practice is ok for me to work," he replied.

"Ok. Meet me at Karen's Café," she said.

"Why?" he asked. He didn't want to meet at his aunt's business.

"That's where I work and I'll be free around the time practice ends," she said. He nodded.


	2. What Drives Him He's an Idiot

**What Drives Him… He's an Idiot** (Chapter Two)

Nathan walked into the café and was shocked to see that Haley actually did work there. She was behind the counter, wiping it down. He walked over to where she was and looked at her expectantly. She looked up. "You can just take a seat. I've got about five minutes left on the clock," she said, gesturing to one of the seats in the café. He turned around and noticed an empty table in the corner. He shrugged and took a seat at one of them. He opened the sports magazine he brought and started reading.

"Haley?" His Aunt Karen called.

"What's up, Karen?" Haley asked. Nathan looked up and saw that Karen was standing with an older man that he didn't recognize. He looked like a truck driver or something. When Haley saw the man, a look of annoyance crossed her face.

"Did you pour water on this man?" Karen asked. Haley sighed as she nodded. Karen took her by the arm and led her closer to where Nathan was so she could talk to her in private. "You can't just pour water over a customer, Haley. This man may start talking and then I might lose business," Karen said.

"The pig didn't leave me much of a choice," Haley said. Karen looked at her. "He wouldn't stop hitting on me and then he grabbed me and pulled me down on his lap. I grabbed the pitcher of water and poured it over him," Haley said.

"Why aren't you wet?" Karen asked.

"Oh, I brought a change of clothes and changed into them," Haley explained. Karen laughed. Haley smirked.

"Look, I'll take care of him," she said. Karen eyed her carefully.

"I promise I won't pour anything on him," Haley said, as she walked over to him.

"Are you here to apologize to me?" the man asked. Haley laughed at him.

"No, I'm here to warn you that if you don't stop complaining, I might change my mind and actually have you charged," Haley said. The man shook his head.

"You can't prove a thing and it was just a little fun," he said.

"There was a room full of witnesses and the police have a different term for your 'little fun'," Haley said. He looked at her in confusion.

"Sexual harassment and sexual assault since you grabbed me," Haley said.

"There's no way you'd ever have the guts," he said.

Haley's face grew serious as she said, "Do I look like I'm scared?" The man looked at her for a second before he shrugged. "Oh, and by the way, I'm using my right to refuse service to you," Haley said, as he walked out. Karen came over and patted Haley on the back.

"Good job. Next time, please just ask one of the many customers in the room," Karen said, laughing. Haley shrugged, but nodded agreeably. She took off her apron and put it behind the counter and put the rag away in the back. When she came out, she had English books with her. She came over and sat down.

"You handled that guy pretty well," Nathan said. Haley nodded. "Where'd you learn to stick up for yourself like that? A lot of the girls I know are-" he started.

"Wimps?" Haley finished.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that. I meant that they're just not the type to throw water on a guy for hitting on them. They're more likely to get their boyfriend to warn him to stay away or something," he said. Haley laughed.

"How about we get started?" she suggested. He nodded.

"Now, you were supposed to write a paper on what drives you in your life over the weekend," Haley said. Nathan looked at her and smirked.

"How do you remember that?" he asked. Haley shrugged.

"I write it down," she said.

"That's probably a good idea," he said.

"Now, how about I start by asking you this: Why didn't you write the paper?" Haley asked. Nathan stopped to think.

"I was playing basketball," he replied. Haley looked at him.

"All weekend?" she asked. Nathan laughed.

"Well, no. I had parties to go to too," he explained.

"Well, you're going to have to start putting homework before parties and playing basketball when it's not a practice or a game," Haley said.

"Why should I?" Nathan asked.

"Because if you want to stay on the team, you need to pass English and you need me in order to pass English. And if you don't change your priorities, I'm not going to tutor you because it's a waste of _my_ time," Haley said. Nathan nodded.

"So, we need to do an outline, but first, we have to pick a topic," she said. She showed him what a proper outline looked like from one of her notes. He started copying. A minute later, he looked up at her.

"What drives you?" she asked.

"Girls," he joked. Haley rolled her eyes.

"Can you be serious?" Haley asked. He laughed.

"All right. What do you mean?" he asked.

"When you wake up every morning, what do you look forward to all day?" Haley asked. Nathan smirked.

"That's easy. Basketball practice," he said. Haley nodded.

"Why?" she asked. The reason she was asking was because in the paragraph about basketball, he had to give at least three reasons why. He stopped to think for a second.

"Well, I guess because I like sports and basketball is my favourite sport. It's also the one thing Lucas and I have in common so that keeps us from killing each other and it keeps the peace between our two families," he explained. Haley nodded. Karen and Dan had dated previously in high school, but Dan dumped her as soon as senior year ended. Then, Keith and Karen grew closer over missing Dan while he was away and they fell in love and within a few weeks, Karen was pregnant with Lucas. Dan had gone to college and gotten Deb pregnant and did the honourable thing and stayed by her side. Lucas and Nathan had grown up together, but they had never gotten along. Nathan was into popularity and all the profits that came along with it, while Lucas was usually happy sitting in a corner with a good book. Haley didn't know Nathan that well, since he never bothered to hang out with his cousin when it didn't concern basketball so they had never met until now.

"What else drives you?" she asked.

"I guess my friends do. I mean I don't like to see them in pain. Like my friends Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis, but of course, you must know her," Nathan said. Haley nodded. Lucas and Brooke were dating so Haley ran into Brooke all the time now, though she desperately tried to avoid her. She didn't know Peyton Sawyer that well, so she didn't really have an opinion of her.

"So, you like to hang out with your friends," Haley said. It was a statement, not a question, because she already knew that. Nathan nodded. "Do the guys on the team fit into that category?" Haley asked. Nathan nodded.

"Of course they do. I see them all the time, so I kind of know if something's bothering them. You know Tim Smith, right?" he said. Haley nodded.

"What else drives you?" she asked.

He smirked awkwardly as he said, "Well, I wouldn't say they drive me, but I like to see my parents every day. It's cool now that my mom works with my aunt so I get to see her more. I only see Keith and Karen on holidays or birthdays," Nathan said.

"Even though you live in the same town? Is that your point?" Haley asked. Nathan nodded.

"Well, there you go. That's your paper right there," she said. Nathan looked at her. "Seeing your family, basketball and your friends drives you and you know why now. Just put that into sentence format, drop it over at the Tutoring Centre on Saturday because I'll be there and I'll look it over," Haley said. Haley started to get up, but when she noticed Nathan looking at down like he needed help with something, she sat back down. "Nathan?" she said. He looked up and smiled. "Is everything ok?" she asked. He shook his head. She nodded and left the table.

Nathan thought she was going to help him with more than just a paper. He needed help in every part of English. He was not doing well in a lot of subjects. He sat up and put his books in his shoulder bag. "Nathan?" his mom asked. "Hey, Mom," he said.

"I can't believe you actually came here," she said. He smirked.

"I actually needed help from another student for something in school. We decided to meet here," he said. Deb smiled.

"Oh. Well, take a seat and I'll get you something to eat. On me, of course," she said.

"I can pay for my own meal, Mom. Besides, I can't. I have to get home. I'm meeting some friends later and I came here straight from practice," he said. He hugged her and took one last look around the café before leaving. Just then, Lucas and Brooke walked up to the door. Lucas looked so shocked to see Nathan there; he dropped Brooke's hand. "Hey, Brooke," Nathan said. He looked over to Lucas and nodded at him. "Hi, Luke," he said before leaving. Lucas walked up to the counter and smiled when Haley stood up from leaning down.

"Hey, Hales," he said. She smiled at him. Then she looked at Brooke and her smile vanished for a second, but she quickly smirked at Brooke.

"Hey, Tutor Girl," Brooke said cheerfully. A look of annoyance crossed her face and she rolled her eyes.

"It's Haley," she corrected Brooke.

"Can I get a soda?" Brooke asked. Haley shrugged.

"Ask someone else for it. I'm off the clock and I'm going home. I've been here since school ended and I have work to do," Haley said.

"You work yourself to death between the work at the café, your own homework and then you take time to help other people with their homework," Lucas said, smiling.

"And I get it all done. I'm the Energizer Bunny," Haley said. Lucas laughed.

"Bye, Hales, I'll see you tomorrow," he called as she left.

SATURDAY

Haley sat down at the computer and looked at the exam of a student she was tutoring. She pulled up his math exam and then his history exam. She made a few notes on the notebook she had in front of her and put the notebook in the file folder with his name on it and put it away in its slot. Just then, Nathan walked in. "You have your paper?" she asked. He nodded. She took it from him and looked at it. A few minutes later, she looked at him. She took a red pen and made a few marks on it.

"Just a few grammar mistakes. Just type it up again, using the corrections and then hand that copy in. You'll do fine. It's really good," she said, giving it back to him. He took it back from her and put it away.

"Thanks," he said. She nodded as she turned back to what she had been doing. He looked like he wanted to ask her something, but then thought better of it and started to leave. He wanted to ask her if she would tutor him for good now, but he didn't want to bother her. It was obvious that she didn't like working with him and since she didn't offer, it was pretty clear that she only wanted this to be a one-time thing. But he needed help. "Haley?" he asked. She turned around and looked at him. Then, Tim and a few guys from the team walked in.

"Nathan, what are you still doing here, hanging out with this nerd?" Tim asked.

Nathan put on a cool smile as he said, "I was just leaving. I'm just giving her a few seconds of the attention she's dying to get from me." Tim nodded in understanding. Haley's face hardened as she turned around and started doing something else.

"Let's go, Nathan. She obviously thinks she's better than us," Tim said.

"Cause she's so smart. Well, at least I get a date every once in a while," Nathan said to her back. She stiffened. Nathan left with his friends. Haley continued to put the files away even as a tear trickled out of her eye. She took a deep breath. How could she have been so wrong about Nathan Scott? For the few minutes they spent together in the café, he was really nice to her and two seconds ago; he was thanking her for helping him. She took the file she had been working on, on the computer out of the slot. She looked at the name. It said Nathan Scott. She took the notebook out of the file and ripped the one page of writing out of it. She crumpled the folder and threw it all in the garbage. There was no way she was going to continue to tutor him so she could endure that kind of treatment all year long.


	3. Returning the Favour

**Returning the Favour **(Chapter Three)

TWO DAYS LATER

On Tuesday afternoon, Haley walked to her locker and put some of her books away. She closed her locker door and jumped when she saw Lucas. "Jeez, Luke!" she exclaimed. He laughed at her.

"Sorry, Hales. I didn't mean to scare you," he said.

"Yes, you did," she said. He shrugged. They started walking down the hall and Lucas smiled. Haley looked in the direction of his smile and frowned when she saw Brooke Davis, along with Nathan Scott, Tim Smith and Peyton Sawyer. This was the last thing she needed; a run-in with that jerk, but she continued walking. Lucas hugged Brooke and then they kissed for a few minutes. Haley looked around uncomfortably.

"Hey, Broody," Brooke said.

"Hi, Cheery," he said, smiling. He started to laugh.

"Guys, can we please go get something to eat now?" Tim asked.

Peyton laughed at him and said, "Tim, do you ever have any patience?" Tim shook his head.

"Not when I'm hungry," he replied. Lucas looked at Brooke for a minute and then to Nathan. He stiffened for a minute.

"Will you eat with us?" Brooke asked, pouting and widening her eyes in innocence. Haley rolled her eyes because she knew that when she turned to look at Lucas, there would be a big smile on his face as he nodded. She looked up and sure enough, Lucas was nodding and smiling at her. Then, he stopped and looked at Haley as if he suddenly remembered that she was there. She never hung out with this group and Haley could tell that Lucas was worried that she wouldn't be accepted.

"Hales, you going to join us?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah, Tutor Girl, come on," Brooke said encouragingly. Haley heard the sarcasm in her voice so she shook her head.

"As fun as that sounds, I have some work to catch up on," Haley said.

"Like what? You're ahead of everyone else in all of your classes," Lucas asked.

"Ok, fine. It's not my work. I have some tutoring stuff to work on. I'll see you later," she said, walking away. Lucas exhaled sharply. He turned to look at Brooke who was chatting with Peyton.

"I'm going to go talk to her," he said, starting to leave, but Brooke pulled him back.

"Just leave her be, Lucas. She's probably very busy," she said.

"No, she was upset and she's been upset for a few days now," Lucas said.

"Everybody gets upset once in a while, Lucas," Peyton said.

"Not Haley. And if she is upset, she's the kind of person who will tell her best friend about it and she hasn't," Lucas said.

"So, maybe she's fine," Brooke said. Lucas shook her head.

"No, she is. I know her," Lucas said.

"Well, we're hungry and we haven't seen each other in two days," Brooke said. Lucas shrugged as he gave in to Brooke.

TEN MINUTES LATER

Nathan didn't know why he went to the tutoring centre. He didn't know why he cared if Haley James was upset or not. He didn't know why he felt that he ought to help her in some way and he didn't know why he thought he could help her; he just felt that he should. Haley was sitting at a round table with three-file folders open flat and three notebooks in each along with other papers. She had a few pieces of paper that had obviously been typed on the computer because it was computer paper that she was holding. She grabbed a sip of orange juice and then put it back down. She reached for her red pen and put the papers down on the table so she had a flat surface to write on. He walked up to her and asked, "Is this seat taken?" Haley shook her head without looking up. A few seconds later, she reached for her juice but then stopped when her eyes locked with Nathan's. Then, her eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. He shrugged. "Are you lost or something?" she asked. He looked at her in confusion.

"I mean, isn't this where 'nerds' hang out? Last time I checked, you weren't part of that group," she said angrily. Nathan bit his lip.

"Okay. Lucas was right; you are upset," he said.

"How lucky of me to have you around to point out these sort of things," she said. _Whoa_! He thought to himself. If he didn't know better, he'd swear that she was Peyton Sawyer's twin sister. Only Peyton had the guts to say something like that and it was certainly her style. He didn't think Haley James had a mean bone in her body. He assumed she was one of those girls that were always nice and full of wide-eyed innocence. The kind of girl that didn't want to hurt anyone or make any enemies. Also the kind of girl that would never dare insult the great Nathan Scott. Clearly, he was wrong.

"Call me crazy, but are you angry at me by any chance?" he asked. Haley smirked sarcastically at him.

"Why would I be angry at you?" she asked, looking at him as if she didn't have the slightest clue as to what he was talking about. "I mean, it's not like you arrogantly insulted me after I helped you out," she said. He swallowed hard. "Oh, but wait," she said. She paused as she looked at him.

"That _was_ you," Haley finished. She gathered up her things and walked to another table and put them down again. She sat down and pulled out a portable CD player, plugged headphones into it and put it down as she went back to what she was doing before he sat down. He was speechless as he looked at her in shock and disbelief.

TEN MINUTES LATER

Nathan went to the cafeteria and found Peyton, Brooke, Tim, Jake and Lucas all eating at the same table. He sighed as he walked over and pulled a chair out and sat down. He grabbed his lunch and opened it. "Where have you been?" Peyton asked.

"At the tutoring centre," he replied. Peyton dropped her fork onto her rice that she had been eating. Tim gaped at him in shock. Brooke raised her eyebrows in surprise and curiosity. Jake had a neutral expression while Lucas' mirrored Brooke's.

"Did you just say you were at the tutoring centre?" Brooke asked. Nathan nodded.

"The temperature _must_ have dropped in hell. I didn't know you knew where it was," Peyton said.

"Why were you at the tutoring centre?" Jake asked in a matter of fact tone.

"Well, you said that Haley was upset," Nathan said, looking at Lucas. Lucas looked at him in confusion.

"And?" Brooke asked.

"I went to see if she was ok," he said.

"Why?" Lucas asked.

"Well, she helped me out a while ago. I was just trying to return the favour," Nathan replied.

"How'd it go?" Peyton asked. Nathan shook his head as he laughed.

He looked at Lucas as he asked, "Let's just say I didn't receive a warm welcome."

"From Tutor Girl?" Brooke asked in disbelief. It seemed that Brooke had the same misconception of Haley that he had had. He nodded.

"What did you say?" Lucas asked.

"Well, it's not what I said this time. It's what I said the last time I saw her that she's mad about," he said.

"Nathan, what did you do to her?" Peyton asked, looking at him knowingly. Peyton and Nathan knew each other very well, since they had dated for a while and known each other since grade eight.

"I don't really remember, but apparently I insulted her in front of my friends," Nathan said, trying to remember.

"Oh, I remember!" Tim exclaimed happily.

"Care to share?" Brooke asked.

"Well, it was Saturday. I asked what you were doing in the tutoring centre with that nerd and you said you were giving her the attention she craved from you or something," Tim said. Peyton looked at him in disbelief.

"Nathan!" she exclaimed. Now, Nathan remembered. It was when he was about to ask her to tutor him full-time but Tim and a few guys on the team had seen him.

"Well, no wonder she wasn't nice to you," Lucas said, shaking his head in disappointment. Nathan and Lucas had been at odds for a while, but since Lucas started dating Brooke and joined the team, they had come to a truce. They were civil towards one another now.

"What exactly did she say to you?" Brooke asked.

"It wasn't really what she said. It was more in the way she said it," Nathan said.

"How did she say it?" Brooke asked.

"She reminded me of you," he said, looking at Peyton.

"That doesn't surprise me. Haley's always had a way with words. She's always known how to express herself without resorting to actual insults," Lucas said. Brooke looked at him.

"Actual insults?" she repeated.

"You know. She doesn't swear," Lucas tried to explain.

"I never thought she had it in her," Peyton said, smiling like she was impressed.

"Not many people do. Haley's a very even-tempered person and she tries to be nice. But when you get her angry…" Lucas said. Nathan and the others looked at him expectantly. "Watch out and take cover," he finished.


	4. Apologizing 101

**Apologizing 101 **(Chapter Four)

A WEEK LATER

Nathan Scott walked out of the school building and was surprised when he saw Haley James waiting for a bus to arrive. He assumed she would be getting a ride from Lucas. He honked his horn at her. At first, she flinched while waiting, but got back to reading the book she had. He honked again and stared at her. Another student nudged Haley. He said something to her. Her eyes widened a little and then she rolled them like she didn't believe the guy. Then, he pointed towards Nathan. Haley looked in Nathan's direction. Her gaze fell upon him and her eyes immediately narrowed in annoyance. She sighed as she went right back to the book she was reading. He honked the horn a few times in a row. She ignored him. Now, he was getting frustrated. No one had ever ignored him like that. "Haley James!" he shouted. She looked up at him and shrugged. He motioned for her to come over and she shook her head. At this point, a few of the students, including the ones waiting with Haley, were watching the scene unfold. A female student started talking to Haley, but since he was too far away, Nathan couldn't hear what she was saying. Haley shook her head at the girl and then pointed towards Nathan. Haley shook her head at Tina Lang.

"If you want someone to talk to Nathan, then, you go over there and talk to him," Haley finished saying. She pointed towards Nathan.

"I can't just go over there and talk to him. He wants to talk to you, so you should go over there," she said. Haley wrinkled her brow at her. She knew this was something of high school politics that she never really understood. She guessed that Tina meant that she can't just go over and talk to the popular guy if he didn't request her to and she also guessed that since Nathan, the popular guy in the scenario was asking her to come over and talk to him, Haley had some sort of obligation to go over and talk to him. Screw that. She was never one to conform to the insane rules of high school social hierarchy and she wasn't about to start now. If Nathan wanted to talk to her, he would have to get out of his car and come over to talk to her. But, that didn't mean that she'd talk to him, though. She'd gotten pretty good at ignoring him. Even Lucas had suggested that she give him a chance, but she knew he was only saying that so there'd be peace between him and Brooke. As well as the others when they ate at lunch, but since she never ate lunch with them, she didn't really care if there was peace. She smirked to herself as she saw that Nathan was getting impatient. He turned off his car and took off his seatbelt. He got out of the car and walked over to her. Patience always won out in the end. If she hadn't been patient with ignoring him, she'd never be able to see him squirm and she enjoyed it.

"What is your problem?" he asked as he came up to her. The others backed away. _Chickens_, she thought to herself.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking up from her book for a minute. He grabbed it from her. She reached for it.

"It's not polite to read while someone is talking to you," he said. She scoffed.

"I don't need a lecture on etiquette from _you_, thanks," Haley said. He put the book behind him and Haley shrugged. The bus had arrived. The other students were getting on it but Nathan wouldn't let her pass. "Grow up," she said, trying to get around him. She sighed as she turned around and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" he called.

"I'm walking home!" she yelled back.

"What about your book?" he called back.

"Keep it. You could probably benefit from reading a book that's not about sports!" she yelled. Nathan would've laughed at that comment if it weren't directed at him. He'd tried numerous times to get Haley to talk to him so he could apologize, but she never gave him a chance to get one word in. He had tried to talk to her at the tutoring centre a few times, but she'd either move to a different table or leave the room. If he saw her in the hallway, she'd turn around and go in the opposite direction. He was tired of Lucas bugging him about how Haley was acting around him so he decided that this little fight would end now so he could go back to getting along with his cousin and playing basketball without a care in the world, etc. He gave Haley a good ten-minute start, and then he got into the car and drove. He was driving on a country road, since their school was located on the edge of town. He finally caught sight of her. He stopped a few feet ahead of her and got out of the car.

"You walk pretty fast," he said as she neared him.

"Learn something new everyday," she said as she passed him. He sighed. Well, at least she was talking to him and not ignoring him.

"I'm sorry, ok?" he said loudly. Haley stopped walking. She turned around and walked back to him.

"I bet you are. You didn't think I'd hear what you were saying, did you?" she asked. He didn't answer. Haley shook her head in disbelief. "You know, everything people say about you is true: You really are a jerk," she said. She started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm and turned her around. A look of fear flashed in her eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. There was only anger in her amber-coloured eyes now.

He let go of her as he said, "What I said was mean. I know that, but…" Her eyes flashed.

"But?" she repeated angrily. He looked at her for a minute. "There's a 'but' in your apology? You're not really going to give me a lame excuse, are you?" she asked. He shrugged. "Let me guess. I didn't know what you meant or how about, 'I was only saying it because my friends were there'?" Haley asked. He didn't know what to say. She laughed.

"Look, do me a favour. The next time you feel the need to apologize to me, go on one of your dates that you have 'every once in a while' because I don't want your apology if it's not sincere," she said.

THE NEXT DAY (AT SCHOOL)

"So, I heard you ignored Nathan," Lucas said as he came up behind Haley. Haley sighed. She turned around.

"Luke, leave it alone. You're never going to get me to see anything but arrogance in him," she warned. Lucas shook his head.

"I don't understand why you won't give him a chance," he said.

"Why should I?" Haley asked.

"Because it's what you told me to do when I didn't get along with him," he said.

"What is it that you're so upset about anyways? People have called you a dork or worse before and he didn't even call you that. Why are you giving him a hard time," Lucas asked.

"He used me," Haley said simply. Lucas looked at him. "He was nice to me when I was tutoring him and then five seconds after I corrected the final assignment, he turned into the arrogant asshole everyone says he is," she said. Nathan, Brooke, Peyton and Jake all walked up to Lucas' locker.

"Hey, Lucas," Nathan said. He looked at Haley and said, "Tutor girl." He meant it as an insult, not as the nickname that Brooke had made up. Haley actually laughed.

"But not your tutor," she retorted before she left. Peyton laughed but when Nathan looked at her, she stopped.


	5. Working it Out

**Working it Out **(Chapter Five)

Peyton smiled at Haley's retreating form. She had quite the mouth on her and Peyton was impressed that she had the guts to talk to Nathan like that. Even Peyton herself had never dared to insult Nathan Scott when she first met him. But Haley obviously didn't care who Nathan was. Lucas glared at Nathan. "You know, you could make an effort," he said to him. Nathan scoffed.

"I did make an effort to apologize for the last week. I'm done that. If your friend wants to be a little bitch to me for no reason, that's fine by me. I'm done walking on egg shells because poor little Haley James got her feelings hurt," Nathan said. Lucas shook his head at Nathan in frustration.

"Why should Nathan be the one to apologize now?" Brooke asked. Lucas sighed.

"I'm not saying that Haley shouldn't apologize for the way she's been acting and the things she's said to you, Nate. I'm just saying that you could be the bigger person for a change and apologize to her first," he said.

"I did and she threw it back in my face," Nathan reminded him. Peyton looked at him.

"Did you try to excuse what you said by any chance?" she asked. Nathan stiffened. Peyton knew him way too well. He looked at her and nodded. She shook her head and smiled in amusement. She walked over to him. "Nathan, Nathan. You're never going to learn, are you?" she said putting her hands on his shoulders and laughing.

"What?" he asked.

"You can't make excuses if you're apologizing," she said.

"Why not?" he asked her.

"Because if you do, it's not really an apology," she explained.

"Well, I'm not apologizing again. I'm perfectly happy just ignoring her," he said.

"You're not ignoring her," Brooke pointed out.

"You're insulting her every time you see her," Jake added.

"Kind of like how when we were younger, you use to pick on the girl you liked," Peyton said. Nathan glared at her. Lucas started smiling.

"Is that it, Nathan? Do you like Haley?" Lucas asked. Nathan shook his head.

"Of course not. I think she's stuck up and looks down on everyone because she thinks she's so smart," Nathan said.

"Uh, she is smart," Brooke reminded him.

"And Haley's not like that. If you actually said that to her, I'm not surprised that she's being so mean," Lucas said.

"Whose side are you on here? We're family," Nathan asked.

"I'm not on anyone's side, Nathan. And, besides, Haley's my best friend. I'm just looking out for her," Lucas said.

"What did you mean when you said you wouldn't be surprised?" Peyton asked curiously. Lucas yawned for a second.

"Haley's been a tutor for a few years now and she takes those kinds of comments very personally," Lucas explained. Nathan shook his head in annoyance.

"How would you feel if someone accused you of taking steroids and then said that that's the only reason you're so good at basketball? Or that you're riding off of your dad's success as a kid?" Lucas asked. Nathan gave him a death glare. Peyton laughed. "See? You don't like that. Haley's been tutoring people for over three years now and she knows that people learn at different paces. She also is probably one of the most patient tutors in the school," Lucas said. Peyton looked at him.

"How do you know?" Brooke asked.

"She tutored me in ninth grade," he admitted.

"I never knew you had tutoring. I assumed you were always smart," Brooke said.

Lucas laughed as he said, "No I couldn't understand math to save my life in grade nine. Haley helped me through it, but she always waited for me to get it on my own. She didn't blast me or anything. If I didn't understand one part of a problem, she'd explain it step by step. That's how she is," Lucas said. Jake nodded.

"She tutored me for History one semester last year. I had a big project due and she helped me do research for it and helped me write the proper bibliography for it. She even edited everything for me," Jake said. Peyton looped her arm through Jake's as she drew him close.

"I didn't know you had tutoring. We were dating in tenth grade. How did I not know?" she said.

"I didn't want to tell anyone that I needed tutoring. I was ashamed," he explained.

"Even you can't deny that she's not a good tutor," Lucas said to Nathan. Nathan had to agree with him on that subject. He had had a professional tutor before in tenth grade and it was always sitting at the kitchen table doing problems and then giving them to the tutor who would mark them all wrong without telling him where he went wrong and he failed that class and had to make it up in summer school. Haley had helped him with his English paper by sitting down and having a normal discussion. It was the easiest paper he'd ever written. He remembered her saying that his paper was really good even when it had about a hundred grammar and spelling mistakes in it. Now, he felt bad. Lucas looked at him and smiled. "Starting to feel a little guilty?" he asked. Nathan nodded. He shook his head in defeat.

"Where did she go?" Nathan asked.

"Tutoring centre," Lucas replied, pointing down the hall. Nathan walked away from them and headed towards the tutoring centre. He walked in and was surprised to find that Haley was the only one in the room.

She looked up and said, "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you," he said. She scoffed and looked at him incredulously.

"Yeah, right," she said.

"I'm serious. I just want to talk to you, I swear," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. She nodded. He walked into the room and closed the door. He sat down at the table she was at. She put her book down and looked at him.

"Well?" she said.

"Look, I wanted to apologize for what I said about you that Saturday," he said.

"I'm listening," she said. He smirked.

"I don't have an explanation for why I said what I said, or at least not one that you're going to like, so I won't try to explain. All I'll say is that I'm sorry and that I was wrong about you," he said. She nodded.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked. He actually laughed.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"That's all I wanted to begin with but you made it seem like it was so difficult. If you had just said that the day you followed me home, it would've ended there," she said.

"I wasn't really sorry then," he said.

"What changed?" Haley asked.

"I got some sense knocked into me," he replied. Haley looked a little confused, but smirked.

"Now, it's your turn," he said.

"My turn?" Haley said. "To apologize," he said. Haley laughed.

"What do I have to apologize for?" she asked.

"Well, for starters, that you were wrong about me," he said.

"No, I wasn't. You were a jerk," she said. Nathan rolled his eyes. "But I'm sorry too," she said. He laughed.

"Friends?" he asked, holding out his hand. Haley looked at him closely for a second and then hesitated before she put her hand in his and shook it.

"Friends," she clarified.


	6. To Join a New World or to Not

**Part Two**

Three months have gone by.

**To Join a New World or To Not **(Chapter Six)

Lucas Scott walked into school on Monday morning and went to his locker. He put his stuff away very quickly and grabbed the books he'd need for the next few periods and shoved them into his bag. He put a few pens and one pencil as well as an eraser in his pocket and was all set to go. He walked towards his best friend's locker. Since he and Brooke were all right in their relationship at the moment, he'd decided to hang out with Haley more often. Since he started dating Brooke, he knew he'd neglected time with Haley and he wanted to see how she was doing. He was near her locker, but slowed his pace down when he saw his cousin, Nathan at her locker. It'd been a few months since Haley and Nathan had buried the hatchet and become friends, but it was still unusual to see Haley hanging out with Nathan. He walked up to them, but neither had noticed that he was there. Haley was holding a math textbook in her hand as well as a piece of paper. She was explaining sine from trigonometry to Nathan. "Thanks, Haley. You've saved my life. I think I might actually pass the test today," he said taking the textbook from her and put it in his bag. He turned around and smiled as he saw Lucas.

"Hey, Luke," he said. He started to walk away, but then turned around. "We're still on for tonight, right?" he asked Haley. Haley nodded and smirked.

"Hey, loser," she said to Lucas. Lucas smiled.

"Hi, buddy," he said.

"What's tonight?" he asked.

"Tutoring session at his house," she replied.

"You're going over to his house?" Lucas asked. Haley nodded.

"Why?" she asked.

"Have you met his dad?" he asked sarcastically. She nodded.

"I've been there before," she said. Lucas' eyes widened in surprise.

"You two certainly seem to be spending a lot of time together lately," he commented. Haley's face scrunched in confusion.

"No more than when I tutored you in ninth," she said.

"Haley, we spent all our time together in grade nine," he pointed out. Haley laughed.

"Well, that's true. That was back when it was just the two of us against the world and no Tigger, but what I meant was the time I spent actually tutoring you," she said, closing her locker and putting the lock on it. Lucas stopped for a minute.

"Why do you call Brooke 'Tigger'?" Lucas asked, suddenly overcome with curiosity.

"Because she's so bouncy," Haley replied. Lucas looked at her in confusion.

"What?" he asked as if she were crazy.

"I'm serious. She's got a bouncy personality. She never stands still; she's always bouncing on her feet. Tigger from Whinny the Pooh bounced on his tail," Haley explained. Lucas laughed hysterically getting what she meant. That totally explained Brooke.

"That is true, but I don't think Brooke would appreciate that," Lucas said. Haley shrugged.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because the way you say it sounds like you're insulting her," he said. Haley shrugged.

"Well, it's not an insult," she said. Lucas started walking again.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Haley looked at him. It was her "you better tell me what that means or else" look.

"I know you don't like Brooke," he said.

"And?" Haley asked.

"Well, I just want to make it clear that I don't want you insulting her. Brooke means a lot to me, Haley, and I would really like it if you two would get along or at least be civil towards one another," he said. Haley laughed.

"What is it with you and trying to get me to get along with your new friends?" she asked. He looked at her for a minute, but she continued as she said, "Next thing you know you're going to start asking me to eat lunch with the whole gang." He decided to drop the subject. Sarcasm was part of Haley's personality, but when every other word was sarcastic, he knew she was starting to get snarky. They walked into class and sat down.

AN HOUR LATER

Lucas ran into Brooke in the hall at her locker. She smiled when she saw him in the mirror that was on her locker door. "Hey," she said, putting on some lip-gloss. He smiled at her.

"So, I'm free tonight if you want to do something," he said. Brooke frowned. She turned around and looked at him.

"I thought you were doing something with Haley tonight," she said.

"I neglected to check to see if she didn't have plans already," he said.

"And she does?" Brooke asked in surprise. Lucas nodded.

"Doing what, homework?" Brooke joked.

"Tutoring session," he said. Brooke nodded.

"Who's she tutoring?" she asked.

"Nathan," he replied. Brooke's eyes widened in surprise.

"Again? Nathan blew me and Peyton off yesterday for a tutoring session," she said. Lucas shrugged.

"I guess he needs a lot of help," he said.

"Or he needs to see a lot of Haley," Brooke suggested. Lucas looked at her in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. Brooke smiled at him suggestively.

"Come on, Luke. I know you don't pay a lot of attention to things happening around you but no one is that oblivious," she said. He shrugged.

"Nathan and Haley," Brooke said.

"What about them?" he asked.

"I think Nathan likes Haley," Brooke said. Lucas laughed.

"Yeah, right. Haley is so not Nathan's type," Lucas said.

"So?" Brooke asked.

"Nathan's used to girls who are into like make-up, who drink, who are athletic or are cheerleaders and shop a lot. Haley's not like that. She likes to hang out and be comfortable, maybe read a book. Her idea of exercise is walking to school every morning," Lucas said.

"Depending on how far she walks, it might be exercise," Brooke said. Lucas looked at her.

"I know; totally not the point. But none of that matters. You can't help who you like, Lucas. You're not supposed to," Brooke said.

"They're complete opposites of each other. Haley's a sweet girl who doesn't like to be pushed around and Nathan's an arrogant jerk who is used to having his way and girls falling all over him," Lucas said.

"Opposites attract," Brooke said with a wink.

MEANWHILE IN THE TUTORING CENTRE

"Oh, it was awesome, Haley! I understood it," Nathan exclaimed as he walked into the nearly vacant room. Haley laughed.

"I take it the math test went well," Haley said. Nathan nodded.

"Better than well. It was..." he started.

"Awesome?" she teased. He laughed.

"Aren't you going to lunch?" he asked, looking at the table she was sitting at. She moved the chair beside her that had her bag on it and took out a lunch bag.

She pointed to it as she said, "I brought it with me." Nathan was not impressed.

"You're going to eat here?" he asked.

"Why not? I always do," she asked.

"All alone?" he asked.

"I have a book and music. I have everything I need," she replied. He looked at her with pity in his eyes. "Don't look at me like that, Nathan. It's not like I don't have any friends or anything. I do. I just prefer to eat here especially since I have work to do and it's quiet here and I have a computer to work on if I need it," she said.

"Why don't you come eat with me?" he asked. Haley laughed.

"Yeah, sure. Me eating with the jocks and the cheerleaders? How does that picture look to you? Because to me it looks like a big 'no'," Haley said sarcastically.

"Come on, it's not that bad," he said.

"What would I do their homework?" she asked.

"It wouldn't hurt. You'd definitely get on their good sides," he said. Haley looked at him in shock. He smiled to show that he was only kidding and she sighed with relief. He looked at her for a minute. "You could just sit and eat," he said. Haley shook her head.

"No, thanks. I'm fine right here," she said. He shook his head.

"Come on, Haley. What are you afraid of?" he asked.

"I'm not _afraid_," she insisted.

"Are you sure that you're not afraid that you might not be accepted by them?" Nathan asked. Haley didn't answer for a minute. Haley wasn't afraid that she might not be accepted. She was not the type of person who cared about what others thought of her. She was more concerned that she would be bored of her skull listening to them chat about sports.

"I don't like just sitting at a table and not saying anything when there are other people there," she said. He looked at her in confusion.

"You don't need to worry about that. They talk more than they eat," he said. Haley laughed.

"About what?" she asked.

"All sorts of things," he replied.

"Such as?" she asked.

"Well, about the team and the squad, of course," he offered. Haley's scrunched her face in disgust as she shook her head.

"No, thanks, Nathan," she said as she started to open her lunch. He shook his head. He walked over and grabbed her bag, portable CD player and her lunch bag. He put her things back in her bag and zipped it up. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Haley demanded.

"Call it persuading you to come and eat lunch with us. You need to eat and since I have your bag with your lunch and I'm going to the cafeteria, you're going to have to come too if you want your things back," he said.

"Persuading, huh? That's a pretty big word, Nathan. How'd you learn that?" Haley teased angrily as she tried to get her bag back from him. He held up over his head and he was at least three feet taller than her so she couldn't reach it.

"Nice try. Insulting me is not going to make me leave you alone," he said.

"You realize this is childish, right?" Haley asked, getting her sweater and putting it on as she put the files away. He shrugged.

"Maybe so, but I accomplished my goal," he answered as they were walking down the hall. They walked into the cafeteria and grabbed a lunch from the line and Haley came and sat down with him. It was almost as if she'd never even been in the cafeteria before. She seemed to have no idea where she was going. Nathan led the way to his lunch table. Haley could already see Peyton, Brooke, Lucas, Tim and a few other guys from the team at the table. Lucas looked up at her and was shocked to see her. Nathan sat down and pulled out a chair in between him and Peyton for her to sit in.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have some work to finish?" Lucas asked. He sat directly across the table from Brooke and to Haley's left.

"Yes," she replied, glaring at Nathan. He laughed. "I convinced her to join us," he explained. Lucas looked at Haley carefully.


	7. Hidden Talents

Hidden Talents (Chapter Seven) 

Nathan smirked in amusement at the look of annoyance on Haley's face. He couldn't help but admire her restraint as she took her bag from him and didn't swat him or anything. He could definitely tell she was angry or at least irritated with him. "So, what have you been up to, Hales?" Lucas asked.

"You just saw me this morning," Haley pointed out. Lucas shrugged.

"What's happened since then?" Brooke asked for him.

"Nothing much," she replied opening her lunch bag and bringing out her bottle of orange juice, turkey sandwich and a granola bar.

"Where'd you get that?" Peyton asked.

"From my kitchen," Haley replied as if the question were ludicrous. Peyton smirked.

"Most people I know buy their lunch from the cafeteria," Peyton said.

"Well, the prices in there are ridiculous and I happen to like good food, not the mush they serve that passes for food," Haley explained. Peyton laughed.

"It is horrible, isn't it?" she asked. Haley nodded.

"Where's your food?" Haley asked, noticing the lack of food in front of Brooke, Lucas, Nathan and Peyton.

"Oh, Jake went to get us something from McDonald's," Lucas explained.

"I think we have a class together next period," Peyton said. Haley shrugged.

"What do you have?" she asked.

"History," Peyton replied. Haley shook her head.

"No. I have vocal next period," Haley said.

"You sing?" Brooke asked. Haley nodded.

"Are you any good?" Nathan asked, looking at her. Haley shrugged.

"I do fine for the class," Haley replied. Lucas shook his head.

"Don't listen to her. She's amazing," he said.

"Why don't you ever perform?" Peyton asked.

"I have," she replied. Every one looked at her in surprise.

"She performs at the café a lot. When my mom learned that Haley could sing, she made me drag our piano over there and set up a little place for Haley to sing when she feels like it," Lucas said. Now that Nathan thought about it, he did remember seeing a piano with a microphone set up in a corner near the window of the café. He nodded in surprise.

THAT NIGHT (TUTORING SESSION AT NATHAN'S HOUSE)

"Mom, I'm home," he said as he and Haley walked into the house after school.

"Hi, Nathan," his father called. His mother actually came to the front door and smiled.

"Hi, honey," she said. Then, she looked at Haley and smiled. "Oh, hi, Haley. Are you tutoring today?" she asked. Haley nodded. "Will you be staying for dinner?" she asked. Nathan turned to look at Haley. He shrugged as she looked at him questioningly.

"I guess so," she said cautiously. Nathan smirked. Deb smiled as she went back into the kitchen.

"It will be served at seven," she called. He led the way downstairs to the den. There was a table set up there with chairs. They usually worked in the kitchen, but he didn't want his mother pestering them every five minutes. He grabbed his books from his room and came back downstairs and was surprised to see Haley already sitting down with her books piled in front of her.

"Where do you want to start off?" she asked.

"History?" he suggested. Haley nodded, grabbing her binder and textbook. He and Haley had three classes together: English, French and History. History was second period, English was first and French was third. And they both had fourth lunch.

"You know, until you started tutoring me, I never realized how many classes we have together," he said. Haley smirked.

"Well, we won't have any classes together next semester," she said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I loaded up on English and science courses next semester," she explained.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Well, I have biology first period, general science second period, grade twelve English third, and then Writer's Craft fifth period," she replied. He whistled.

"All university preparation?" he asked. She nodded.

"Well, you're right about that then because I stopped taking science in tenth grade when it was no longer required," he said.

"Let me guess: you're taking more PE courses," she said. He nodded.

"I like gym and I'm good at most sports. Might as well stick with my strengths, especially since I want to be a professional basketball player," he said. She nodded.

"You're going to college, right?" she asked. Nathan nodded.

"Yeah. I want something to fall back on," he said.

"What would you major in?" Haley asked.

"Probably advertising or technology," he said. She nodded and smiled.

"Not bad choices," she said.

"Thanks. So, why are you taking so all of those courses?" he asked.

"I want to be a writer," she said.

"Journalist or like novel writing?" he asked. Haley smiled.

"Both," she replied.

"What about singing?" he asked.

"It's a hobby, besides I write my own songs," she said.

"So, technically, you already are a writer," he said. She laughed.

"I guess that's true," she said laughing.

TWO HOURS LATER

"That was delicious, Mrs. Scott," Haley said.

"Thank you, Haley," Deb said smiling appreciatively.

"Thanks, Mom. That was great. Come on, Hales," Nathan said as he led the way out of the living room. He had adopted Lucas' nickname for her a long time ago. She never seemed to mind. She followed him out of the kitchen. He led the way into one of the two living rooms in his house. The one that he led her into had a piano.

"Nathan, shouldn't we get back to work?" she asked.

"We're done. I just needed help with the homework," he reminded her.

"Okay, so then, I should get home," she said.

"All in good time," he said. She looked at him and seemed to notice something in his expression.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

"Will you do me a favour?" he asked. Haley's face wrinkled in confusion.

"That depends on what it is," she replied.

"Will you sing for me?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I find it hard to believe that we've been friends for three months and not only have I not heard you sing, I had no idea that you could sing," he said.

"You promise you won't laugh?" she asked. He chuckled.

"Of course I won't laugh," he said.

"You can use that piano," he said, pointing towards it. She went over to the piano nervously and started playing chords. Then she started to sing:

_I'll always love you_

_Even though you are far away_

_I will think of you_

_While you ignore me_

_No matter how many times you say_

_That you're over me_

_I won't believe that_

_And no matter how loud you scream_

_I know you still want to kiss me_

_Our love goes deeper than the lies that were buried_

_Our love is clearer than the shadows of doubt_

_And I don't want to lose this once in a lifetime_

_Let love win, please darling_

_Let love win_

_I have no excuses for my terrible choices_

_My heart was in the right place_

_Will you ever forgive me?_

_You trusted me; I trusted you_

_But now our love-our dreams-are fading_

_There's nothing else I can do_

_Except to pray that you'll come back_

_Our love goes deeper than the lies that were buried_

_Our love is clearer than the shadows of doubt_

_And I don't want to lose this once in a lifetime_

_Let love win, please darling _

_Let love win_

_Let love win, please darling_

_Let love win_

She stopped playing and took a deep breath as she turned around to face him. She looked at him nervously. He started clapping as he smiled. "That was incredible, Haley! What was that song called?" he asked.

"Let Love Win," she said.

"Did you write it?" he asked. Haley laughed as she shook her head.

"No, it was written by Jane French," she said.

"Why don't you sing one of your own songs?" he asked. Haley shook her head insistently.

"Oh, no," she said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I'm already very nervous," she said.

"Come on," he said. She sighed as she looked at him. He looked at her pleadingly.

"Please? For me?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Haley laughed.

"All right. Just don't ever make that face again," she said.

"Can't resist the puppy dogface, can you?" he asked.

"Actually, I can. It looks ridiculous," she said, turning back to the piano. She started playing and then singing:

_You're the one everybody's interested in_

_You see me, but you look right past me_

_You know who I am, but you don't know me_

_You assume I'm not worth your time_

_You'd think you would get it by now_

_I'm the one who's always around_

_Looking at people and hoping they're all okay_

_I'm the girl that nobody notices _

_I hide behind the mask that people around me have given me_

_It's not the only one that can fit me, but I wear it anyways_

_There is so much more to me than meets the eye_

_But when I'm around, no one notices_

_Nobody wonders what's going on with me_

_Nobody wonders if I'm okay_

_They're all busy trying to figure out who they are_

_I take comfort in the fact _

_That I already know who I am _

_The only thing left is for you to know too_

Nathan watched her stop playing and was amazed by the power and volume of her voice. He had no idea that Haley James was so talented. He guessed like she said in her song, he never noticed. "What's that called?" he asked.

"It's Time That You Knew," she replied.

"That was great," he said again. She smiled at him.

"Now, I need to get home," she said. He laughed as he nodded.


	8. Becoming One of the Girls

Becoming One of the Girls (Chapter Eight) 

FIVE DAYS LATER (SATURDAY MORNING)

"Hey, Nathan!" Peyton exclaimed when Nathan opened his front door. Nathan felt like he'd gone back in time. Back in ninth grade, he and Peyton had dated and this was how they used to start every morning. Peyton would come to his house and ring the doorbell. He'd answer it and she'd give him a big greeting.

"What are you doing here?" he asked without thinking. Peyton frowned.

"Gee, it's nice to see you too," she said sarcastically. She started to turn around but he grabbed her arm.

"Look, Peyton, I'm sorry. I'm just surprised to see you at my doorstep. What's up?" he said. Peyton nodded.

"Me and Jake are kidnapping everyone to go hang out," she said.

"Everyone?" he repeated.

"You, me, Jake, Brooke, Lucas, Tim and…" she replied.

"And?" he repeated. He started repeating the names in his head. Who was missing from their group?

"And Haley," Peyton said. Nathan looked at her in shock.

"Haley _James_?" he asked. Peyton nodded. "Since when does she hang out with us?" Nathan asked.

"Since she's eaten lunch with us every day for the past week," Peyton replied.

"I don't know if she'd want to come. It's not really her kind of thing," he said. Peyton laughed.

"Oh, please, Nathan. Every girl likes shopping," she said, hitting him on the shoulder and walking into his house.

"Where are you going?" he asked, following her inside.

"Up to your room. You need to get ready. Come on," she said already up the stairs.

"What about Brooke, Tim and Lucas?" Nathan asked walking into his room and picking out some clothes. He went into the bathroom that was attached to his bedroom and closed the door most of the way, but left it open a little crack so he could still hear her.

"We already picked Tim up. Jake just when to go grab Lucas and Brooke. They're at his house. We need you and Lucas to get Haley," she said.

"Why?" he called.

"Because we don't know where she lives," Peyton replied. He was dressed and came out of the bedroom.

"How are you going to convince her to go?" he asked eagerly. Peyton smiled at him. He looked in the mirror and saw that there was a silly grin on his face.

"Just leave it to me. I can convince anyone to do anything," she said.

"You may have met your match with Haley, Pey," he said. Peyton looked at him curiously. "What?" he asked. She smiled. "What!" he asked again, more loudly this time.

"You like Haley, don't you?" she asked. He looked away from her.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. Her eyes widened with excitement as she smiled.

"You do!" she exclaimed. He started to say something, but she interrupted him. "Oh, you can't deny it now, Nathan. You only avoid looking someone in the eye if you're hiding something," she said. A horn honked outside and Peyton went to the window. She waved as she said, "It's them. Come on, lover boy, we've got to go."

"Don't say a word," he warned her. Peyton laughed.

"Aw," she teased.

"Peyton, I mean it," he said. She rolled her eyes as she nodded. "You promise?" he asked.

"Oh, what are you, in kindergarten? Yes, I promise," she said, leading the way out of the room and to the car.

FIVE MINUTES LATER

They pulled in front of Haley's house. Her house was impressive, but it wasn't a flashy house. It was large enough for all of her brothers and sisters, but it still wasn't as big as Nathan's house. He knew her parents made a good enough living to afford a house like his if they didn't have so many kids. Everyone got out of the car and started walking up to the front of the house. Lucas was the one to knock on the door. No one answered. Nathan had never been over to her house. They always did tutoring at a library, school or his house. Lucas turned the knob, but it was lock. He took his key chain and unlocked the front door. He walked in first and led the way up to the main floor. "Haley?" he called. There was no answer.

"I hear music," Peyton said. Lucas listened carefully.

"It's the piano coming from her room," he said, leading the way upstairs. They walked passed eight doors and stopped in front of the one at the end of the hall on the right. Lucas tapped on it lightly. The piano music stopped as footsteps approached the door. The knob turned and Haley appeared on the other side. She smirked when she saw Lucas, but frowned when she saw every one else.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at everyone.

"We're going out," Lucas announced.

"Okay. Have fun," Haley said uncertainly. It was as if she thought they came all the way over there to tell her that and she clearly didn't understand why.

"No, Hales. We're all going out," he said gesturing to everyone, including her. Haley laughed.

"We are, are we?" she asked doubtfully. Peyton stepped forward, dragging Brooke in the room by her arm and closed the door.

"Yes, we are," she said. Haley narrowed her eyes at Peyton. _No wonder Nathan likes her_, Peyton thought to herself. Haley was clearly her own boss.

"I don't think so," Haley said, sitting back down at the piano. Peyton was surprised by the harshness of her tone.

"Why not?" Brooke asked.

"I'm not a big drinker. I wouldn't fit in," Haley offered. Peyton cracked a smile.

"Then, you can be the designated driver," Brooke said, shrugging as if it weren't a big deal, which it wasn't. They didn't discriminate against people who didn't drink. Peyton actually had a lot of respect for people who chose not to.

"Driving at night creeps me out," Haley said.

"So put on the interior. You'd never know the difference," Brooke said, playing along to Haley's game.

"That's illegal," Haley pointed out. Brooke looked to Peyton questioningly. Peyton nodded, indicating that what Haley said was true.

"Whoops. Oh, well," Brooke said to herself.

"Next excuse, please," Peyton said sarcastically. Haley winked at Peyton mischievously.

"I hate shopping," Haley said. Brooke gasped and started choking as if she'd had the wind knocked out of her. Peyton laughed hysterically.

"That was a good one," she said to Haley.

"Thanks," she said.

"So, seriously, will you come with us?" Peyton asked. Haley hesitated. Then, she shook her head.

"Not even if Nathan is coming?" Peyton asked intuitively. There was a flicker in Haley's eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"Not even if he's coming," Haley said.

"Brooke, go and see Lucas," Peyton said.

"Thank you! Hope you decide to come with us, Haley," Brooke called as she slammed the door. They heard her footsteps bounding down the stairs. Haley had a confused look on her face.

"Did she just call me 'Haley'?" she asked. Peyton nodded.

"I think you should come with us," Peyton said.

"Well, I don't," Haley said. Peyton smiled. Nathan was right; Haley was a stubborn one.

"Why not?" Peyton asked. Haley played a few keys on the piano before she answered.

"I'm not the best person to go shopping with," Haley said. Peyton smiled.

"Well, we're not only going to shop at the mall. We'll grab a bite to eat eventually. But I think you're the perfect person to go shopping with me and Brooke," she said. The guys would meet up with them eventually, but for the most part, it'd be the girls shopping.

"Why?" Haley asked.

"Well, Brooke and I sometimes go crazy when we shop. We don't know when to stop sometimes. And you seem like you're the kind of person who doesn't shop a lot. You go to the stores when you need things and you occasionally browse, but you'll look quickly at clothes and take what you like. You won't try on twenty different outfits and model each one for your friends. You'll pick what you like," Peyton said.

"So?" Haley asked.

"Well, you also strike me as the type of person who doesn't like to waste their time. So when Brooke and I go crazy, you'll be there to stop us," Peyton said. Haley laughed as she nodded.

"You'd probably drag us out of the store," Peyton said, smiling.

Haley smirked as she said, "I totally would do that." Peyton's eyes widened in surprise.

"What would people think?" she asked Haley.

"They'd know not to mess with me when I mean business," Haley offered.


	9. Regroup

Regroup (Chapter Nine) 

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Peyton and Brooke walked into La Senza's and started looking around. Haley browsed for a while, but after fifteen minutes, she started to complain. "Come on, Brooke, you've tried on six bras and you're buying them all. Surely, you have enough," Haley said. Brooke laughed.

"Just this last top, Tutor Girl," she promised.

"That'll be the day," Haley said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I told you that she tends to go overboard," Peyton said, smiling.

"She passed overboard four bras and seven tops ago and crossed directly into outrageous shopaholic!" Haley said loudly.

"I heard that!" Brooke called from the dressing room.

"You were supposed to!" Haley called back. Peyton laughed. Then, she grew serious.

"Do you like Nathan, Haley?" she asked. Haley looked at her in disbelief for a second. She scrunched up her face in a look of annoyance.

"I don't know," she said. This surprised Peyton. Haley always seemed to be so sure of everything.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Peyton asked.

"Well, I like him, sure, but I'm not so sure that it'd be a good idea," she said.

"Oh," Peyton said in understanding. Haley wasn't sure if she and Nathan dating would be a good idea. "Why don't you think it would be a good idea?" she asked. Haley stopped to think for a second. "Are you worried that he might not like you?" Peyton asked. Haley shook her head.

"Well, I know that he likes me… as a friend. But in the way that I like him?" Haley said. She shrugged. "And even if he did, there's other things that get in the way," Haley said.

"Like Lucas?" Peyton asked. Haley laughed.

"No. Why would he be in the way?" she asked.

"Well, maybe you're worried that Lucas might not be comfortable with you and Nathan dating," Peyton said. Haley shook her head.

"He didn't feel the need to check to see if I was comfortable with him and Brooke before he started dating her, so why should I care if he's comfortable with Nathan and me?" Haley said.

"Well, you seem like the type of person who would be, especially since Nathan and Lucas are related," Peyton said.

"So? Brooke and I might not be related, but we still don't get along all the time. Normally, I would be cautious because Nathan and Lucas are related, but not this time," Haley said. Peyton nodded in understanding. She knew that when Lucas and Brooke started dating almost eight months ago that things had changed. Peyton had to welcome a new person in her group of friends and she was a little hesitant at first, but she welcomed Lucas eventually. Haley, Peyton remembered, had not welcome Brooke at all when they started dating. Haley and Brooke's animosity towards one another had been there since seventh grade when Brooke spread a rumour around school about Haley's older sister, Taylor, being a slut. Peyton imagined that Haley must have been really hurt when Lucas started dating Brooke, but Haley probably realized how Lucas felt about Brooke and let it slide.

"So what else is getting in the way?" Peyton asked.

"Nathan," Haley replied cryptically. Catching the confused on Peyton's face, Haley said, "The way he acts around me. He's really nice to me when we're alone. But when we're with other friends, he gets this weird edge to his voice and starts behaving like a jackass." Peyton smiled.

"That's just, Nathan. Is he an ass to you?" Peyton asked. Haley shook her head.

"Not anymore," she said with an edge in her voice. Peyton smiled. She remembered the little fight between Nathan and Haley a few months prior and how Haley had taught Nathan a lesson on how he had to treat her if he wanted her help.

"He's probably acting like a tough guy in front of his friends because he doesn't want any of them to take you from him," Peyton said. Haley laughed.

"Yeah, right. He doesn't even really see me," she said.

"Oh, I beg to differ. From what he told me this morning, he sees you pretty clearly," Peyton said, smirking.

"What do you mean?" Haley asked. Peyton shook her head. _Sorry, Nathan, but I have to tell her if you want a chance in hell of dating her_, Peyton thought to herself.

"He told me he likes you," Peyton said. Haley looked at her doubtfully.

"In what context?" Haley asked. Peyton smirked.

"In the context that you better let him know that you like him too if you want him to make a move," Brooke said as she came towards them with the shopping cart. Haley looked happy at the realization that Nathan liked her too.

SOMEWHERE IN THE MALL

Nathan and Lucas walked out of HMV and started to walk to the food court where the girls said they'd meet them. Jake and Tim joined them as they found a table with six chairs and dragged one over. They sat down and started chatting. "So, Nathan, what are your plans for this weekend? Any dates?" Tim asked. Nathan shook his head.

"Nathan Scott doesn't have a date for the weekend?" Lucas asked in amazement.

"It's by choice, Cuz. I'm not losing my touch or anything," he said.

"Why is it by choice?" Tim asked.

"I've got my eye on a particular girl and I don't want any distractions," he said. Lucas and Jake looked at each other knowingly and smiled at Nathan. "What?" he asked.

"That girl wouldn't happen to be Haley, would it?" Lucas asked, smirking. Nathan kept his cool.

"What makes you think that?" he asked calmly.

"Oh, come off it, Nathan. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain that you have a thing for her," Jake said.

"It is?" he asked, looking to Lucas. He nodded.

"What's taking you so long to ask her out?" Tim asked. Nathan shrugged.

"I don't know how she feels," he said.

"Well, I'm going to go out on a limb and say she likes you," Lucas said.

"She told you that?" he asked. Lucas shook his head.

"Not directly, no," he admitted.

"Then how do you know?" Nathan asked.

"Because I see the look on her face when the two of you are together," Lucas said. Nathan looked at Jake in confusion. "It's the same goofy look you have on your face," Lucas explained. Jake and Tim laughed as it dawned on Nathan that Haley liked him like he liked her.

"Come on, Brooke. No more shopping until I've had a good meal so I'll be able to pull you away from the stores," Haley shouted as the girls approached them. Lucas kissed Brooke when she sat down next to him. Jake kissed Peyton. Haley sat down in between Nathan and Tim and smiled at Nathan.

"Hey, Hales," he said, looking at her in a new light now that he knew the truth. It was as if a switch had been pulled and he was recognizing all the signs of attraction now.

Haley smiled at him sweetly as she said, "Hi, Nathan." "Let us know when you're ready to come up for air," she said to the others. She looked around the table. "Where'd Tim go? He was just here two seconds ago," she asked. Nathan pointed towards a separate table that had two people sitting at it. Tim was with his girlfriend, Tammy.


	10. Crossing into Unkown Territory

Crossing into Unknown Territory (Chapter Ten) 

Haley got out of Jake's car when he pulled into her driveway. She was shocked when Nathan got out too. Haley looked at him in confusion. "They're going to drop Brooke, Lucas and Tim off first, then come back for me. I live on this side of town," he explained. Haley nodded.

"You can come in if you want," she said leading the way across the lawn and unlocked the front door. She opened it and took her shoes off in the front hall. She walked up the stairs and down the hall and turned to the right. They were in the kitchen now. "I'm hungry," she said.

"We just ate," he said laughing at her.

"I meant for good food," she said, grabbing an apple.

"Fries are good," he said.

"You know that I meant food that's actually good for you," she said. "Want one?" she asked. He nodded. She tossed him one.

"Thanks," he said as he bit into the Granny Smith apple.

"Did you have fun?" he asked as they sat down at the table. Haley took another bite out of her apple and then swallowed.

"I guess," she said. He raised his eyebrows.

"You guess?" he asked.

"Well, the eating part was fun. But I don't think I'll be shopping with Brooke again anytime soon," she said. Nathan laughed as he nodded in understanding. "She's still that bad?" he asked.

"How do you know how bad she is? You guys were nowhere to be found," she said.

"When Peyton and I dated, she and Brooke dragged me shopping with them," he explained. Haley laughed. "So, why do you like the eating part best?" he asked. Haley bit her lip.

"Because you were there," she admitted. Nathan felt as if he were dreaming. He was almost certain that his ears were playing tricks on him.

"Did I hear you right?" he asked. Haley nodded. He exhaled deeply. What the heck was he going to say to that? She had basically just admitted that she had feelings for him. Or did she? He could never really tell with Haley. One thing that usually meant something could mean something totally different with her. "Why?" he asked. Haley smiled.

"You're not that daft, are you?" she asked, smiling.

"I've been wrong about this sort of thing before, Haley. I need you to tell me exactly what you mean," he said. He hadn't really ever been wrong before. He just wanted to hear her say the words he was almost convinced she was going to say.

"I should think that it's quite obvious, Nathan. I like you in every sense of the word," she said.

"The romantic sense?" he asked.

"Especially that sense," Haley confirmed. He smiled at her.

"Interesting," he said more to himself. Haley frowned. Her face clouded with confusion.

"That's all you have to say?" she asked. She was getting angry. He really liked her when she was angry. The way her eyes narrowed and her voice got a dangerous edge to it was so attractive he was surprised she didn't have very much experience in dating. He smiled.

"You're cute when you're angry," he said. At first, she seemed annoyed, but then the full meaning of his words dawned on her and she smiled widely. It was a genuine smile and they were his favourite. He took her hand from across the table. She entwined their fingers and closed their hands together.

"So, now that we both know how we feel, what do we do about it?" Haley asked. Nathan looked at her suggestively. Haley glared at him and he smiled.

"I think we should go on a date and then take it from there," he said as he pulled her off the chair and led her out of the house.

"I don't have a car and neither do you," she said.

"Yes, I do," he said.

"But you don't have it here," she pointed out.

"Then, I'll wait for Jake and Peyton to come back and drop me off and then I'll come back and get you. It will give you some time to get ready," he said. Haley looked at herself.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face. He smiled as he sighed with relief.

"I knew I liked you for a reason," he said. Haley still looked confused. "There's nothing wrong with what you're wearing," he said.

"Then, why would I change?" she asked. He laughed again. She was so unlike the other girls he'd dated and he loved it.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Nathan pulled in front of Haley's driveway and honked the horn. Two minutes later, the front door opened and Haley was still wearing the same clothes that she was. The only thing different was her hair. She'd pulled it into a classy ponytail. She opened the front passenger seat and smiled as she dropped her purse on the front dash. "Is it ok if I put that there?" she asked. He nodded.

"Why wouldn't it be?" he asked.

"Some people might find it presumptuous to just toss my purse there," she said.

"Well, not me," he said, shaking his head. Then she pulled her seatbelt on.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Charlotte," he replied. Haley looked at him in shock.

"Um, Nathan, that's two hours away," she said.

"I know a good restaurant there. My dad took us there once," he said.

"It's not a fancy restaurant, is it?" she asked.

"I guess," he said.

"Then, turn the car around and pick somewhere else," she said. He pulled over as he looked at her in confusion.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Haley smiled.

"Have you taken other girls there?" she asked. He stopped to think.

"A few, yes," he said.

"And you feel that you have to take a girl to a fancy restaurant?" Haley asked.

"Most girls expect it from me," he explained. Haley smiled.

"Nathan, I hate to point out the obvious, but I'm not like 'most girls'. You don't need to take me to a fancy restaurant to impress me. Just being you is enough for me," she said.

"In that case, how about Karen's Café?" he asked. Haley's smile widened.

"Now, we're talking. Good food is a good way to win me over too and I happen to be an expert on the food served at the café. It's the best," she said. He laughed. He couldn't believe it'd taken him this long to ask Haley out. He liked how she acted like herself all the time. Other girls that he'd take out would be too willing to please or total snobs once they were actually out. He didn't like it one bit and that was usually what made him not ask them out again. From the way the date had been going so far, he'd ask Haley out again, and they hadn't even gotten to the café yet. He parked on the road near the café and got out of the car. Before she could, Nathan raced around to her side and opened Haley's door for her. She looked at him and smiled. "And they say chivalry is dead," she joked.

"Just common courtesy," he said, folding her arm in his as they walked into the café. To his amazement, Lucas and Brooke were there. His mother was there as well, but that didn't really surprise him since she worked there. He ignored the looks of astonishment on the teenage customers' faces and took Haley over to the corner booth where they'd had their first tutoring session and sat down.

"Do you feel like we have an audience?" she asked, gesturing to the people around them. Nathan shrugged.

"Since when do you care what people think about you?" he asked. Haley laughed as she took their menus and started to leave. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Its kind of ridiculous to wait here, isn't it? I work here. I can go back there and grab what we want," she said. Nathan started to shake his head, but Haley ignored him and got up. A few minutes later, she returned with food. "I hope you like this because I'm not getting up again now that I have my food," she said. He laughed.

"It's fine," he said. It was roast beef and fries along with gravy. They started eating in silence for a while. About ten minutes later, a girl walked up to them, or rather, to Nathan and smiled at him.

"Hi, Nathan," she said and leaned on the table, blocking his view of Haley. He was at a loss of words. He had no idea who she was.

"Hi," he said carefully.

"It's me, silly. Amber," she said.

"It's nice to meet you, Amber," he said. She smiled appreciatively.

"We've met before. You took me out a few months ago. Remember?" she asked. He shook his head. "Well, it was a while ago. I can't blame you. Anyways, I was hoping you might want to go catch a movie tonight," she said.

"We're on a date, which you're kind of intruding on," he said. Amber looked at him in shock.

"You are on a date with Haley James?" she asked. He nodded.

"Did you lose a bet or something?" Amber asked.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"Or is this some sort of pity thing?" Amber asked. He looked at Haley. She looked furious.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Haley demanded.

"Oh, come on, Haley. Every one knows that you've never been on a date before and Nathan here obviously feels some sort of obligation since you've been tutoring him," Amber said, looking at her. Haley looked at her in disbelief. "You don't really expect me to believe that this is a real date, do you? There's just no way," Amber said.

"And why's that?" Haley asked.

"Because you're you and he is Nathan Scott. You're a nerd and he's hot," Amber said.

"Well, it is a real date. One that I'd like to get back to. So, please leave," Nathan interrupted. Amber stalked away in annoyance. Haley was looking at her empty plate. "Haley, are you ok?" he asked. Haley looked at him and smirked.

"I'm sorry. I don't usually let people like her get to me," she said.

"Well, she was out of line," he said. Haley shook her head.

"Was she?" she asked. Nathan looked at her in shock.

"What?" he asked. Haley shrugged.

"Well, part of what she said was true. We are totally different," Haley said.

"And?" Nathan asked.

"And we don't really have that much in common, do we? We come from different worlds. You're used to girls who dress like supermodels or whatever, who are experienced in dating and who just give it away at the drop of a hat. You live the high life. I don't," she said. He nodded.

"I understand what you mean. I really do. Its part of the reason I was so hesitant to admit that I actually liked you for a long time. But now I think that it's our differences that make us so perfect for each other," he said.

"What?" Haley asked.

"Haley, I like that you're different. I like that you have your own life and you don't dress like a 'supermodel'. You dress like you and you act like you. You're an original and that is really more attractive than all the supermodels in the world," he said. Haley smiled widely. She leaned over the table and so did he and they kissed.


	11. Rejection

Rejection (Chapter Eleven) 

Two months have gone by

HALEY'S HOUSE

"Okay, now it's time to get to work," Haley said as she broke the kiss. Nathan sighed.

"Come on. I can fail one test," he said. Haley laughed as she got up off the bed and went over to the desk.

"Not on my watch," she said, bringing the books onto the bed and her pen. "Do these equations. And I'll work on some of my work," she said. He stretched out and yawned.

"Oh, I have something to tell you," he said. At the tone in his voice, Haley turned around and looked at him cautiously. "Brooke is throwing a party tomorrow," he said. Haley shrugged.

"So?" she asked. Nathan laughed at her cavalier attitude. She really was from a different world than him.

"She wants us to come," he said.

"Us?" Haley asked doubtfully.

"Yeah, you and me," he clarified.

"Did she specifically say the both of us, Nathan, or did she say you and you want me to come?" she asked.

"She invited me and I am inviting you," Nathan said.

"I thought so," Haley said.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"Nathan, Brooke and I don't get along… at all," she reminded him.

"So?" he asked.

"So, I don't think she'd like it if I showed up at her house uninvited," she said.

"Well, I want you to come and if you don't, then I don't want to go," he said.

"No, you should go. They're your friends and you've been spending so much time with me, you hardly see them anymore," Haley said.

"But I want to spend time with you. Why can't I spend time with you and with my friends at a party, no less?" he asked.

"Because I'm not going to a party thrown by Brooke Davis," Haley said.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"It means that I don't fit in with that crowd and I have no desire to be exposed to the kinds of things that go on in that type of party," Haley said.

"Lucas will be there," he said, hoping that would make her change her mind.

"Yeah, and he knows that parties and me don't mix," Haley said. He got up and kneeled down at her chair. He drew her in and kissed her long and hard.

"Will you come now?" he asked. Haley shook her head. Then, he kissed her longer and deeper. When the kiss ended, he smiled as he said, "That's worth coming to the party at least." Haley smiled.

"You know, you give yourself way too much credit," she teased. Then he kissed her again. "Okay, stop. I'll go," she said. Nathan smiled, but then he frowned.

"Wait, you don't like it when I kiss you?" he asked in concern. Haley laughed and swatted him playfully on the shoulder.

"Of course I do, but I need some time to breathe in between," she said, laughing harder.

THE NEXT DAY

Haley yawned in the car on the way to Brooke's house. Lucas laughed. "Why am I driving you again?" he asked.

"Because Nathan is already there and I wanted to go later and I knew I could count on you for that," she said, giggling.

"I am not always late," he protested. Haley laughed.

"Sorry, but you are, Luke. If you were on time for anything, I'd wash my mouth out with soap," Haley promised.

"I'm on time for practice every day," he said.

"No, you're not," she said.

"Yes, I am. I'm in the change room when practice starts," he said.

"If you're in the change room while the practice is just starting, then you're not on time because you're obviously still getting ready," she said.

"We do warm-ups, so it's not like it really matters if I get out there a little after everyone else," Lucas said.

"That may be so, but you're still late," Haley pointed out.

"Everyone's a critic," Lucas mumbled in mock anger. Then he smiled and started laughing with Haley. He pulled the car onto the side of the road. Haley looked at Brooke's house in shock.

"That's Brooke's house?" Haley asked. Lucas nodded as he opened her door and walked up to the front door with her. He knocked on it and Brooke answered the door a few seconds later.

"Hey, Broody, it's about time you showed up!" she exclaimed and kissed him. Then, she saw Haley and turned to him.

"And you brought some company," she said, looking at him in confusion. She probably thought Haley couldn't tell what the look was about.

"Actually, Nathan invited her," Lucas said. Brooke nodded.

"Nathan's inside," she said, throwing a sarcastic smirk Haley's way. Haley smiled right back only hers did not have a trace of sarcasm in it. She was too preoccupied with finding Nathan to deal with her issues about Brooke. She waved bye to Lucas and whisked passed the two of them. She walked in and couldn't see Nathan. But she did run into that Amber girl.

"What are you doing here?" Amber asked in sarcasm.

"I was invited," she said.

"Really? By who, your imaginary friend?" Amber asked, clearly drunk.

"No, by my boyfriend. Nathan Scott. I'm sure you remember him," Haley said, slipping past her, taking a little pleasure in the shocked look on Amber's face. She started searching the living room and stopped in front of the kitchen table where people were playing strip poker. Then, strong arms came around her. And lips started trailing kisses down her neck. She smiled at the slightly familiar touch.

"I've missed you," Nathan said. Haley turned around and he started to kiss her. Haley pulled back.

"Nathan, are you drunk?" Haley asked.

Nathan laughed as he said, "What do you think?"

"I think you are," she said.

"Then, I must be if you think I am, right? I mean, you're always right, right?" he asked.

"I didn't mean it like that," she said.

"You never do, Haley, but it always comes out like that," he slurred. Haley took a step away from him.

"Did something happen tonight, Nathan? Are you ok?" she asked. Her voice was full of concern.

"I just got in touch with who I am, Hales, that's all," he said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. He smiled wickedly at her.

"I missed parties like this, that's what I meant," he said.

"I know. That's why you're here," she reminded him.

"And I'm going to the one tomorrow night too and the night after that and every other night this week," he said. Haley nodded.

"Ok, if that's what you want," she said, not fully understanding what he was trying to tell her.

"Thanks for the permission," he said. Now, she was angry.

"What hell has gotten into you?" she asked.

"Me, Haley. For the first time in a long time, I've been reminded of who I really am," Nathan said.

"A drunk?" Haley guessed. Nathan frowned.

"There's nothing wrong with drinking," he said.

"I didn't say there was," she said simply.

"No, but the disdain in your voice makes it pretty clear that you have a problem with it," he said. Haley shrugged.

"I don't, normally. If other people want to drink themselves into a stupor every night before they die of alcohol poisoning, I consider it their choice. But, I do have a problem with it when my boyfriend starts insulting me while he's drunk," she said.

"Well, I have my own mind and I can make my decisions for myself. You're not making them for me anymore," he said.

"Exactly what choice have I made for you?" she asked.

"The choice not to hang out with my friends," he said.

"That was your decision, Nathan, not mine. You said you wanted to spend time with me. If you remember things correctly in your current state, then you should remember that I told you that you should go. You're the one who wanted me to come," she reminded him.

"Because I wanted to bring you into my circle. I wanted you to be friends with my friends so that we could all hang out together," he said.

"I don't have to like your friends, Nathan, and they don't have to like me. I only want to be in your life. I don't want to be in your world that includes your friends. I have my own," she said.

"My friends are my life, Haley and if you don't accept them, then you can't accept me," he said.

"Are you giving me an ultimatum?" she demanded.

"Big word, Haley. I am drunk," he said.

"Are you saying that either I choose you and your friends or choose not to have you at all?" she demanded.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. If you don't want my friends, then I can't be with you. This is my world and if you choose to be with me, you have to come into my world and be a part of everything that comes with it," he said.

"Nathan, you're not thinking straight while you're drunk. Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.

"Haley, I know what I'm doing," he said. Haley nodded, knowing what she had to do.

"Then, you can have your world because I don't want it," she said. She moved away from him and started to walk away. She turned around and said, "Any of it."

MONDAY (TWO DAYS LATER)

Haley sat down at the table in the tutoring centre. She had gone into a routine to eating lunch with Nathan, Peyton, Lucas, Jake and Brooke, but now she was quite content with going back to her old routine of eating lunch in the tutoring centre. She opened her bag and pulled out her lunch bag. She grabbed her Pepsi, slice of leftover pizza and usual granola bar. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and was surprised to see Peyton Sawyer. "What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

"We're all wondering where you were," she said.

"Well, here I am. I'm not lost," she said. Peyton smirked.

"I can see that. We were just worried. How come you're not at the table?" she asked. Haley looked at her.

"Why do you ask a question to which the answer is so blatantly obvious?" Haley asked, not in the mood for polite chitchat.

"Haley, Nathan gets a little intense when he's drunk. You shouldn't take anything he says too seriously," Peyton said.

"So you know what happened?" Haley asked.

"Nathan told me yesterday," she admitted. Haley nodded as she put her food down and looked at Peyton angrily.

"Maybe you let Nathan treat you like that when the two of you were going out, but I won't," Haley said. Peyton smirked.

"I'm just trying to explain to you that there are certain things that you need to accept about Nathan," she said.

"I can't and I won't accept treatment like that from anyone," Haley clarified.

"He was drunk," Peyton offered.

"And that's supposed to make what he did to me ok?" Haley asked.

"It's supposed to make you realize that it didn't mean anything," Peyton said.

"But it did," Haley said.

"Haley, Nathan wasn't thinking when he said all of that stuff," Peyton said.

"Some things tend to come out clearer when we lose our inhibitions, Peyton," Haley said. Peyton started to speak.

"It's over, Peyton," Haley said clearly. "Just stop making excuses for him because it's not going to change what happened!" Haley exclaimed.

"Haley, you're not thinking straight right now," Peyton warned.

"Actually, I am. I'm not drunk," Haley said.

"No, you're angry and anger tends to cloud a person's judgement," Peyton said.

"Or it can make a person's judgement more precise. I mean, think about how I was when I wasn't angry. I actually thought that Nathan was a good guy and I believed that he would never hurt me. I obviously wasn't judging him pretty well then," Haley said, putting her stuff back in her bag and storming out of the room.

Peyton walked back to the cafeteria. She sat down at the table. "Where were you?" Jake asked.

"I was in the tutoring centre," she said. Everyone looked at her in shock. Nathan looked at her and shook his head.

"Peyton, you didn't," Lucas said, shaking his head.

"Did," she admitted, nodding her head. Lucas looked at her and sighed.

"How did it go?" Nathan asked. Peyton laughed.

"Do you remember when you told me that I may have met my match in Haley?" Peyton asked. Nathan nodded. "It turns out you were right," Peyton said, smiling at him sympathetically.

"That bad, huh?" Lucas asked.

"I tried, Nate. Whatever you said must have really hurt. She's really mad," Peyton said. Nathan nodded.

"I was drunk. She shouldn't have listened to a word I said," he said, shaking his head in regret.

"I tried to tell her that," Peyton said.

"I can imagine her response," Lucas said.

"Oh, I don't think you could," Peyton said, shaking her head.

"She was mad, wasn't she?" Lucas asked. Peyton nodded.

"That's definitely an accurate assessment," she said.

"Well, wouldn't you be?" a voice asked. They looked up and saw Haley glaring at them with flashing eyes. "You left this in the tutoring centre," Haley said to Peyton, dropping her CD onto the table.

"You know," she started. She paused before she continued. "It's really touching that all of you can sit here and gossip about me," she said angrily. Nathan got up and grabbed her arm, turning her around to face him.

"Haley," he said. Haley wrenched free from his grasp.

"Stay away from me," she snapped, leaving the room. He followed her out into the hall.

"We should talk about this," he said. She turned around and looked at him. For the first time, he saw the raw pain in her eyes along with the steaming anger.

"You made your feelings pretty clear on Saturday, Nathan. So, what is there really left to say?" she asked.

"A lot, I think," he said.

"Well, then, you would be wrong," Haley said coldly. She turned around and went into the one place he couldn't follow her: the girl's washroom.


	12. The Aftermath 1

The Aftermath 1 (Chapter Twelve) 

LATER THAT PERIOD

Lucas walked up to Haley's locker and sighed heavily when she wouldn't turn around to talk to him. "Haley," he said. She didn't respond. "Are you going to talk to me?" he asked.

"That depends," she replied. He waited. "Are you going to try to reason with me about him?" she asked. He bit his lip.

"Yes," he admitted.

"Then, no," she said, putting her books in her locker.

"Haley, you're being a little dramatic, don't you think?" Brooke asked. Haley slammed her locker door shut. She turned around and glared at Brooke.

"Stay out of this," she warned. Brooke's eyes widened in surprise.

"Haley, you need to forgive him," Brooke said. Haley scoffed.

"Or what?" she asked, not the least bit threatened.

"Or you're going to regret it," Brooke said. Haley shook her head in disbelief.

"Don't shake your head at me. I know what I'm talking about. Nathan's not going to wait around forever. You don't appreciate how lucky you are that you caught his eye. He's one of the most wanted guys in the school and once he gets tired of the way you're acting, he's going to move on with another girl and it'll be too late," Brooke said.

"Lucky?" Haley repeated. She shook her head. "I'm not like every other girl here. I don't bow down to Nathan because he's popular. In case you haven't noticed, I don't give a damn about how popular or wanted he is. If he can't treat me with respect, then, I don't want him," Haley said.

"Oh, please. It's obvious that you care about Nathan, Haley. Spare me the 'if he can't treat me right, it's over' act. It's a little played out, if you ask me," Brooke said. Haley rolled her eyes and Brooke scoffed. "Everyone in this entire school knows how you and Nathan feel about each other. It's written all over your faces when the other one is mentioned. I know you're new at this so you don't realize how rare it is to find something like that your first time out in the field. Don't throw this away, Haley," Brooke said.

"I'm not the one who threw it away," Haley said, before she walked away.

FOURTH PERIOD (HALEY'S VOCAL CLASS)

"Ok, everyone. I want you to try your hand at writing songs. You have the whole period to think it over and choose what you want to write about, just make sure it's something personal. You don't have to clear it with me. Just keep it PG-13, ladies," she said. The girls chuckled as they were allowed to disperse around the room and out in the hall to work in peace. Haley asked if she could work out in the hall. Her teacher had nodded. "Just make sure you're out of the way," her teacher said.

"Oh, I'll be out of sight," Haley promised. Her teacher smiled. "Do I need to come back before class ends?" Haley asked. Her teacher shook her head. Haley nodded. The great thing about being her was that most of the teachers trusted her. She could go anywhere she wanted when they were allowed to work out of the classroom because the teachers knew that she wouldn't start any trouble and that she'd actually do her work. Haley grabbed her bag and sheet music and headed out of the classroom. She walked to a hallway near the gym, but not too close. Jake Jagielski was walking down the hall and stopped when he saw Haley.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"Planning a bank heist. I'm here to recruit partners," Haley replied sarcastically.

"Recruiting the athletes in case they have to make a quick get away. Smart," he said, playing along. Haley laughed.

"I'm working on an assignment for my vocal class," Haley said. Jake nodded in understanding. "Don't you have class?" she asked.

"No, I have spare," he said.

"Then, what are you still doing here?" she asked.

"Oh, I stick around to wait for Peyton. You know, to give her a ride home," he said. Haley nodded.

"That's sweet," she commented.

"Peyton had me trained before tenth grade ended," he admitted. Haley laughed hysterically.

"I always wondered how she got her boyfriends to do so many things for her," Haley joked. Jake laughed.

"What's the assignment?" he asked.

"Writing a song," she said. Jake nodded.

"That doesn't sound too hard," he said.

"It has to be about something personal," she said. Jake smirked and nodded.

"Interesting," he said. Haley's face clouded in confusion.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, your song is supposed to be about something personal and I noticed that you're pretty close to the gymnasium," Jake said.

"So?" Haley asked.

"So, that's Nathan's class right now," he pointed out. Haley looked at him.

"And?" she asked.

"And I know that you and Nathan are on a bit of a break because of some stupid thing he did, right?" Jake asked. Haley nodded.

"Well, it's kind of interesting that you'd pick this spot to write your song when you're so angry at him," Jake said. Haley nodded, following his train of thought. Then, she shook her head.

"I'm in an angry mood. Nathan tends to bring that out of me," she said, dismissing Jake's hints. Jake's face softened as he sat down beside her.

"Haley, I'm not going to try to lecture you or anything, but do you mind if I tell you something?" Jake asked. Haley sighed.

"Why not? Everyone else seems to put their two sense in. At least you asked first," Haley said. Jake smirked.

"Nathan does a lot of stupid things, I know, but he really is a good guy. And he cares about you a lot. I know he hurt you and I'm not saying that he doesn't need to make up for what he did, but how's he supposed to make it up to you when you won't talk to him?" Jake said. Haley didn't answer. Jake smiled knowingly. "I think I'll leave you alone to ponder that," he said. Haley shook her head and then thought to herself. She knew part of what Jake said made sense and Haley was usually a sensible person. But, then again, she had never really been in a romantic relationship before and she had never been hurt this badly before. Even when she first met Nathan and they were basically at war with each other for weeks, it didn't really affect her that much since she thought Nathan was a jerk that wasn't worth her time. But now things were different. She had grown to like Nathan and possibly even… _No_, she thought to herself and shook her head. _I couldn't possibly feel that way so soon_, she assured herself. Then, she started stood up and walked to the doors of the gymnasium. She looked in through the glass on the door. The class was playing basketball and she could see Nathan running with the ball to the other side of the court. She saw him jump up and attempt to dunk the ball into the hoop but took a wrong step somewhere and he fell. Haley was about to run in and see if he was alright, but he got up just as quickly as he had fallen. She sighed with relief and then mentally hit herself on the head. Nathan had hurt her like hell and here she was concerned if he was ok. She wasn't able to let him go even when she wanted to.

Nathan sighed as he got back up. He had never missed a score like that so far. Even when he was preoccupied with other things while playing, he still made the basket. But he realized that he was thinking about Haley and he was concentrating more on the thought of her than the game. Whitey yelled at him to pay attention to the game or get off the court. Nathan realized he was still where he had fallen. He quickly moved off the side of the court and gave Whitey an excuse as he pushed the gym doors open. He stopped moving when he saw Haley backing away so the doors wouldn't hit her.

"Haley," he said. She stared at him for a minute. Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she turned on her heel and started to walk away. "Haley, wait!" he called after her. Haley stopped moving. "Could you please just talk to me?" he asked. She sighed heavily and turned around to face him. He sighed with relief as he hoped that she was finally ready to let him hear his side of the story.

"I have to get back to class in a few minutes so I don't have time for a staring contest. If you want to talk, then talk. Otherwise," Haley lied and she started to turn around.

"No, wait. Ok," he said. She turned back around. She looked at him expectantly.

"What I said…" he started. Haley's eyes narrowed. "I didn't mean it," he finished.

"Well, then, you shouldn't have said it," she said.

"I was drunk, Haley," he said. Haley scoffed.

"Don't try to excuse it with drunken babbling. That's weak," she said.

"But that's what it was," he said. Haley smirked.

"Do you even remember what you said?" she asked. He nodded. He wished he didn't. What he said was awful and he even remembered the heartbroken look on Haley's face. Then, he remembered something.

"I can't change what I said, Haley. I really wish that I could. I am an idiot, but you already knew that. Well, I'm an even bigger one when I'm drunk," he said. Haley looked at him in confusion. Nathan walked over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him. He could see the same yearning in her eyes that he felt. "I miss you," he said. He gently held her face and kissed her deeply. As the kiss grew, he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her closer. Haley responded as she put her arms around his neck. Then, she came to her senses and pulled away.

"Damn it, Nathan!" Haley exclaimed. "You can't just kiss me like that and make everything go away. I miss you too, but I am not a doormat," Haley said as she grabbed her things and started to walk away.

THE NEXT DAY (Period 4)

Nathan excused himself from gym class for a few minutes by saying he had to drop something off to his tutor. He was lying through his teeth. He wanted to go see Haley. He knew she was up in the music room and he was hoping he might be able to steal her away for a few minutes so that they could talk. When he got to the music room, he saw that the students were sitting in chairs where the instrumental players usually sat while they were playing and paying attention to the front of the room. The teacher motioned for Nathan to come in once another student told her that he was there. "Just hold on a second, Mr. Scott," she said. "Okay, Haley, you can present," she said. Haley finished walking over to the piano. "What's your song called?" the teacher asked.

"Why I Can't Seem to Let Go," Haley replied. She glanced at Nathan and then got back to the piano. She started playing. A few seconds later, the words to her song came:

_When we first met, I hated you_

_But still, I couldn't stay away_

_You came to me for help and I helped you_

_Then you turned on me_

_We danced around each other for weeks_

_Until you finally realized your mistake_

_I should've walked away that day_

_It would've been better for both of us to stay away_

_But I didn't_

_You hurt me that night_

_When you forced me to make a choice_

_You probably thought I would choose you_

_I don't understand it_

_It's something I can't explain_

_I still care about you_

_Even after what you did_

_The reason why is beyond my understanding_

_I had a tough shell_

_But when you came around me_

_That shell seemed to disappear_

_You made me trust you_

_I believed everything you told me_

_So maybe you can tell me_

_Why can't I let you go?_

She stopped playing and singing. She looked at the teacher and the teacher was clapping. "That was brilliant," she said. Now, Nathan looked at the teacher.

"What did you want, Mr. Scott?" the teacher asked.

"I was wondering if I could talk to Haley for a few minutes," he said. The teacher was about to shake her head, but Nathan quickly said, "It's about something she's tutoring me in." Then, the teacher nodded. Haley quickly walked past him and into the hall. He looked at her for a minute.

"Your song was really moving, Haley," he said. Haley nodded appreciatively. "It really hit home for me," he said. Haley nodded again.

"It's about you," she admitted. He nodded now. He already knew that.

"I have an answer to your question," he announced. Her face clouded with confusion but it the confusion washed away when she realized that he meant the question in her song. "It's because we love each other," he said. Haley shook her head.

"We've only been dating for two months, Nathan. It's too soon for that," she rationalized. Nathan shook his head.

"Haley, love is complicated. There's no graph or timeline to tell you when it's there," he said.

"Then, how do you know it's there?" she asked.

"I know how I feel when I look at you, or when I think about you and I lose all my concentration. Or when I'm looking at you now and I can see the pain that you're in trying to stay away from me when you don't want to," he said. Haley shook her head in defeat.

"Fine. I love you," she admitted. Then she looked at him carefully. "But I don't trust you. Are you happy now, Nathan?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I know you're mad at me, Haley. The things that I said. I only said them because I was fighting my feelings for you," he said.

"Why?" she asked. He moved closer to her.

"Because I'm just as scared as you are, Haley. I've never loved someone the way that I love you. I've never needed someone as much as I need you," he admitted. Haley's eyes widened in surprise. "And it freaked me out a little, but it's there and I don't want to fight it anymore," he said. He was about to lose hope but then she smiled at him. She closed the distance between them. He put his arms around her back and she put hers around his neck. "I love you, Haley," he said. He bent down to kiss her but at the last second, she pulled away. He looked at her in concern, but her smile widened.

"I love you too," she said. He pulled her closer and kissed her.


	13. Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Things Aren't Always What They Seem (Chapter Thirteen) 

TWO MONTHS LATER

Haley walked out of her fourth period class and walked towards the gym. She smiled when she saw Nathan heading towards her in the hallway. He looked up and saw her coming and shook his head in anger. He turned around and walked the other way. "Nathan!" she called. "Not now, Haley," he said. "Come on, will you just talk to me?" she called after him. He turned around.

"My mom gave me some advice once: If I don't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all," he said. Haley scoffed. She couldn't help but think of all the horrible things he'd said to her and other people.

"And you're choosing now to follow that advice?" Haley asked sarcastically. He glared at her. "Sorry," she said. He shook his head and turned around to walk away. "What you think you saw; you're wrong," she blurted out.

"I don't want to hear it, Hales. I told you Friday: It's over. We're done," he said.

"Will you at least let me explain?" she asked.

"There's nothing to explain. If it had been someone telling me, I wouldn't have believed it, but I saw it with my own eyes," he said.

"You've got the wrong idea about what happened with me and Brian," she insisted.

"No, I think I got a pretty good view of you alone together in a room, him on top of you and you being basically naked," he said, storming away. Haley tasted the tears in her mouth before she realized she was crying. She walked all the way to the tutoring centre and was happy when it was vacant. She pulled out some of the songbooks that she had brought from home to find a song for her latest vocal project. They had to find a song from the sixties and sing it. She flipped through the book.

AN HOUR LATER

It was after school and Haley was walking to her locker to put her books away and Lucas, Brooke and Peyton came up behind her. "Hey, Hales," he said. Haley nodded at him but didn't turn around. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Nathan won't hear me out," she said. Brooke scoffed.

"You can't exactly blame him, can you?" Peyton asked. Haley turned around and looked at her. Brooke smiled and shook her head in amusement.

"You are such a hypocrite, Haley. Remember a month ago when you were pissed at Nathan because he said those things to you while he was drunk? You wouldn't talk to him for days. And then you turn around and cheat on him and now you're acting surprised because he's mad at you. You're unbelievable," Brooke said. Her voice dripped of hate. Haley narrowed her eyes. Brooke started to walk away but Haley pulled her arm and whirled her around.

"Listen to me carefully," Haley said angrily. Brooke pulled on her arm but Haley pulled it harder.

"Haley, come on, let-" Lucas started, but she ignored him.

"Whoever the hell you think you are you're not _that_ person. You don't get to judge me. I didn't cheat on him," Haley exploded. She let her go. Brooke chuckled.

"Haley, I was there. I saw what happened," she reminded her. Haley shook her head.

"No, you didn't," she said as she threw her backpack on her shoulder and walked away. Peyton ran after her.

Over the course of the past month, Haley and Peyton had gotten to know each other a little better and had actually become friends. When Brooke had first told her what happened, Peyton could hardly believe that Haley James would cheat on her boyfriend. Then when Nathan had confirmed that it was true, she had been overcome with anger at Haley and sympathy for Nathan. She thought that Haley was cruel, but Peyton saw something in Haley's eyes as she glared at Brooke. Something that led her to believe that there was more to the story than what Nathan and Brooke had told her. She finally caught up to Haley as she was waiting for her bus. "Haley, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked. Haley shook her eyes.

"My bus is here," she said, a she pointed to the yellow bus that was pulling in the driveway.

"I'll give you a ride home," Peyton offered. Haley looked at her cautiously. "Please?" Peyton said. Haley shrugged as she followed Peyton to her car. They drove in silence for a long time.

"I thought you said you wanted to talk to me," Haley said. Peyton pulled over to the side of the road. Haley looked at her in alarm.

"Haley, what did happen on Friday night?" Peyton asked. Haley froze.

"I thought Nathan told you," she said.

"He told me he caught you cheating on him. But you've been insisting that that's not what happened," Peyton said.

"It isn't what happened. I would never cheat on him," she said.

"So, tell me what happened," Peyton said. Haley widened her eyes in fear as she remembered what happened that Friday night.

(FLASHBACK)

"I need to talk to you for a minute, Haley," Brian Chase said as he grabbed Haley by the arm.

"Brian, I can't right now; I'm busy. I can't find Nathan," she said trying to wrench free.

"It's about that test I had today," he said. Haley shrugged and let him lead her to a room upstairs. She had reluctantly agreed to come to another party at Brooke's house. She had been tutoring Brian for a few weeks now and already he had started to improve in his grades so she figured he wanted to tell her how it went. "What's up?" she said. He didn't say anything. He just smiled at her wickedly and pulled her to him and kissed her. Haley cringed and pulled away from him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded. He laughed.

"Oh, come on, like you don't know. You've been throwing signals my way for days now," he said. Haley looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Look, Brian, I think you may have misunderstood our relationship. It's strictly tutoring. I'm not interested in you that way," she said. He scoffed and brought her to him. He threw her roughly on the bed and mounted her. She screamed for help and he covered her mouth as he began pulling down her skirt and underwear. He zipped open his jeans and pulled them down and then in seconds he was inside her. Haley let out a muffled scream in pain. She began struggling but it was no use.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

Peyton looked at her in shock. "About five minutes later after it happened, Nathan and Brooke walked in," Haley said in a choked voice. She was crying now. Peyton's heart broke for her.

"Haley, do you realize what you're saying?" Peyton asked. Haley nodded.

"Yes. I'm saying that Brian raped me," she said.


	14. Helping Someone Out

**Helping Someone Out **(Chapter Fourteen)

AN HOUR LATER

After Peyton dropped Haley off, she made her way back to the school, so she could talk to Lucas about what Haley had confessed to her. Peyton advised Haley to go to the police. Haley had chuckled and said that she had gone to the hospital on Saturday to get tested for any possible STDs that Brian could've given her. Haley had confessed what happened to the nurse who then talked her into a rape kit. After that, the police had been called and Haley had given them a statement. They had asked her if she wanted to press charges and Haley had said that she needed a few days to think about it. Peyton had asked her if she had made up her mind and Haley had decided not to press charges. Peyton had tried to talk her into pressing charges but Haley had remained firm saying: "Peyton, I don't want to make a big spectacle out of what happened. I've already given my statement and now I just want to forget it ever happened and get on with my life."

Peyton had tried once more to talk her into pressing charges, but Haley had remained adamant about not doing so. So, Peyton had come up with a plan. She was going to go to Lucas and Brooke, tell them what happened and hope to God that they could help her convince Haley to press charges. Peyton herself had never been raped, but she had come close and she knew other friends who had. She had never once encountered someone who had never wanted to see her rapist go to jail. She had seen some of her friends who had been afraid of their rapists, but they always wanted to make sure he got what he deserved. The state could prosecute Brian Chase for statutory rape, but without Haley's testimony, it was doubtful that the jury would come back with a guilty verdict. She pulled into the school driveway and parked. She grabbed her pompoms and headed towards the gym.

"P. Sawyer, you are thirty minutes late!" Brooke exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. I was kind of busy talking to Haley," Peyton said. Brooke rolled her eyes and an expression of annoyance slowly came across her features.

"Well, talk to the slut on your own time from now on," Brooke said.

"She's not a slut, Brooke," Lucas said as he came into the gym with some other guys from the team, including Nathan.

"Fine. The cheater," Brooke said, smirking.

"Give it a rest," he said. Brooke looked wounded, but shrugged it off.

"I need to talk to the two of you after practice," Peyton said grimly.

"Is everything ok?" Lucas and Brooke asked in unison. They gave each other a weird look, but then gave their attention to Peyton. Peyton shook her head.

"No, far from it," she said, widening her eyes as Nathan came into view.

"What're you guys talking about?" Nathan asked, as he came over.

"Peyton has something that she needs to talk to me and Brooke about after practice, that's all," Luke said. Nathan looked at her quizzically and in hurt. He must be wondering why she didn't need to talk to him about it.

"It's nothing you'd be interested in, Nathan," Peyton said.

"Try me," he said. Peyton shrugged.

"It's about Haley," she admitted. Anger came down on Nathan's face like a thunderstorm. He nodded. Lucas looked at her worriedly.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Later," Peyton said.

ABOUT A HOUR LATER

Peyton, Lucas and Brooke walked to a hallway where there was no one. "So, what's the big secret, P. Sawyer?" Brooke asked.

"Haley didn't cheat on Nathan," Peyton announced.

"Uh, Peyton, I was there when Nathan walked in on Haley and Brian together. There was no mistaking what we saw," Brooke said.

"What you saw was the end of Brian attacking Haley," Peyton said. Brooke's eyebrows creased in confusion. Peyton looked at Lucas and she could tell that he had an idea of what she meant; he had an expression of disbelief on his face. Peyton sighed. "Brian raped Haley," she confirmed. Brooke's mouth dropped open in shock.

"That son of a bitch!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Hold on, Luke. I didn't tell you so you could fly off the handle and go attack Brian," Peyton said.

"Then, why did you tell me?" he asked.

"Because I need your help. Haley won't press charges against him and I want you two to help me try to convince her," she said.

"She hasn't pressed charges?" Brooke repeated. Peyton shook her head. Brooke raised an eyebrow in a suggestive matter.

"Maybe because it's not true, Peyton," Brooke suggested. Peyton shook her head in shock.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why I'm friends with you," Peyton said. Brooke looked at her in hurt.

"Brooke, Haley would not make up a story like that," Lucas said. Brooke scoffed.

"Please. Nathan dumped Haley once he found her in bed with Brian. Haley is devastated that Nathan dumped her. What better way to win her man back than to cry rape?" Brooke shot back.

"You know what? Maybe I just want Lucas' help," Peyton said. Lucas shook his head and turned to Brooke.

"You don't know Haley like I do. Haley is the most honest person I know and she has very strong morals and she sticks to them. They're as important to her as shopping is to you," Lucas said.

"Haley hasn't told Nathan and I get the feeling that she won't," Peyton said.

"Why? It would explain everything," Lucas said.

"Well, she probably thinks that since he's so angry at her, he won't believe her and like Brooke said, he'll probably just see it as a way to get him back," Peyton said.

"Haley's working at the café right now. We could talk to her there," Brooke said.

"We can't ambush her like that," Peyton said.

"Then, we'll do it at my house. She's supposed to meet me there after her shift to study," Lucas said. They all nodded in agreement.

KAREN'S CAFÉ

Haley sighed as she lifted the heavy tray of dirty dishes. Her shoulder was aching as she attempted to carry it, but Brian had injured it and she couldn't handle the weight, so all of the dishes went crashing to the floor. All of the customers looked up in alarm. Deb Scott came running out. "Haley, what happened?" Deb asked. "Oh, I just dropped it by accident. I'm sorry. You can take it out of my pay," she said.

"Nonsense. If you remember correctly, I probably broke a hundred dollars' worth of dishes when I first started working here," Deb said, smiling. Haley chuckled. Her sleeve on her shirt had been pushed up when she was picking up the broken plates revealing a few small purple bruises from where Brian had held her down tightly with his hand. Deb looked at it in concern. "Oh, Haley, what happened?" she asked, pointing to them. Haley laughed nervously and shoved her sleeve down.

"Oh, nothing. You know me; I'm such a klutz!" Haley said. Deb nodded slowly and chuckled.

"Where are you and Nathan going tonight?" she asked. Haley stopped moving and looked at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, Nathan told me he had a date tonight," she said. Haley gulped.

"Well, it's not with me. He and I broke up on Friday," Haley replied. Deb gasped.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I had no idea," she said. Haley shrugged.

"I guess it just wasn't meant to be," Haley said, shrugging and taking the tray to the back. Deb followed her.

"You know, I saw Nathan while the two of you were together; I've never seen him happier. He was so happy to have you," Deb said.

"Well, not anymore," Haley said. She looked at Deb pleading her to drop it. Deb nodded and left. Haley fought back tears as she thought of Nathan. Then, anger crept up inside her. She wasn't going to waste her time crying over someone who clearly did not care about her anymore. He didn't trust her anymore and she couldn't be with someone who didn't trust her. Although, she knew that in his mind, he had every reason not to trust her, but he didn't even let her try to explain. She had given him a few days to cool down after he broke up with her, but apparently, he was moving on now.

TEN MINUTES LATER

LUCAS' HOUSE

"Hey, Haley," Lucas said as he let her into his room. Haley frowned when she saw Peyton and Brooke sitting on his bed.

"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously.

"Haley, they know," Peyton told her. A look of shame and anger came onto Haley's face.

"You know when someone tells you something in confidence, it's generally understood that you'll keep their confidence," Haley snapped at Peyton.

"I'm sorry. I just thought that they could help," she said. Haley scoffed.

"How can they possibly help?" she asked.

"Haley, why haven't you agreed to testify for the state?" Lucas asked. Haley turned and glared at Peyton and then looked at Brooke and Lucas. She laughed bitterly.

"What is this, an intervention?" Haley asked.

"No, we're just trying to understand," Brooke said. Haley scoffed.

"Like you even care," Haley said. "You're only here because you want to be near Lucas. You don't give a damn about me," she snapped.

"That's not true, Haley. I sympathize with what you're going through, I really do," Brooke said honestly.

"The big brown eyes say 'sincere' but the fact that you called me a slut is throwing me," Haley said. Brooke looked down. "You've got a pretty interesting concept of sympathy," she added.

"I'm sorry," Brooke said. Haley shook her head.

"You know what? I don't even care anymore," Haley said.

"About what?" Peyton asked.

"What people think about me; I might as well testify," she said, leaving and slamming the door with a thundering crash.

"Well, that was kind of easy," Peyton said. Lucas shook his head in annoyance and amusement at what Peyton said.

"Yeah, we didn't really have to do anything," Brooke said.

"I think she was going to decide to testify the whole time. She was just looking for a sign that it would be the right thing to do. And us ambushing her like this was probably that sign," Lucas said.

AN HOUR LATER

KAREN'S CAFÉ

"Hey, Mom," Nathan said as he walked into the café and sat at the bar.

"How'd the date go?" she asked. Nathan groaned.

"It was awful," he said.

"You didn't like the girl?" Deb asked. Nathan shook his head.

"No, she was perfectly nice, good looking, and all of that," Nathan said.

"But…" Deb started.

"She wasn't Haley," he said in misery.

"Nathan, why did she break up with you?" Deb asked. Nathan scoffed.

"That's just it. She didn't. I broke up with her," he said. Deb looked at him in disbelief.

"Why on Earth would you do a stupid thing like that?" his mother exclaimed. Nathan filled her in. Deb shook her head. "I'm speechless," she said.

"I know. It's hard to believe," Nathan said. Deb shook her head.

"I don't believe it, Nathan," Deb said. Nathan looked at him and glared at her.

"I'm not lying. Do you think I want it to be true?" Nathan said angrily.

"There's got to be an explanation, Nathan," Deb said.

"What possible explanation could there be? What, he tripped and fell onto her and she just happened to be half naked?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know, but I do know that when I saw Haley today, she was miserable when I brought up your date tonight," Deb said. Nathan felt a sharp pang at the thought of Haley being hurt.

"Why would you tell her that?" he asked.

"I thought you were going on a date with her, but she quickly corrected my mistake and dropped the bomb that the two of you had broken up," Deb said.

"I thought I had told you," he said. Deb shook her head.

AN HOUR LATER

Nathan walked up to Peyton's door and knocked lightly. No one answered typically and Nathan walked upstairs to Peyton's room. He knocked lightly on the doorframe and Peyton turned around and widened her eyes in surprise. "Nathan, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I haven't seen you in a while," he said.

"You saw me this afternoon and at practice," she said.

"Yeah, but after practice, you guys went to your secret meeting and that was hours ago. Thought I'd stop by to talk," he said. Peyton shrugged.

"About what?" she asked innocently.

"What've you guys been doing without me?" he asked.

"We were, uh, helping Haley with something," she said. His eyes narrowed in anger.

"Thanks. Your loyalty to me is overwhelming," Nathan said.

"Nathan, I'm not on anyone's side here. Haley's just been going through a rough time," she said.

"And I haven't? I'm the one she cheated on, if you remember correctly. The only reason she's upset is because she's guilty," Nathan said.

"I know that Haley didn't cheat on you and deep down you know it too," she said.

"Then how the hell do you explain what I saw on Friday?" he asked.

"You're wrong," she said.

"No, I'm not, Peyton. Haley cheated on me with that jackass," he said.

"No, Nathan, she didn't," she insisted. Nathan looked at her doubtfully. Peyton sighed. "That jackass raped her," Peyton said.

"He raped her?" he repeated. Peyton nodded.

"That's what Haley was trying to tell you earlier," she said. Nathan turned around and left. "Where are you going, Nathan?" she called after him.

HALEY'S HOUSE

Haley lay on her bed and tried to get some sleep. She couldn't help but feel nervous about her upcoming testimony. She wouldn't be there for the entire trial. She didn't think she could face him every day after what had happened. Then, she heard a knock on her window. She groaned as she went over to it. She pulled the curtain away and was shocked to see Nathan. "We need to talk," he said. Haley thought about shutting the curtains, going back to her bed and blaring her music so she wouldn't have to hear him knocking on her window, but the fact that there didn't seem to be any trace of anger in his voice made her open the window. She walked to her bed and sat down on it. He sat down. His eyes travelled to her arm and Haley quickly hid it behind her back. "Haley, I already saw the bruises," he said. Haley looked at him.

"I know that you didn't cheat on me," he said. Haley looked at him in shock. She could barely believe she had heard him right. But then that left only one other possibility. She looked at him and as if he read her mind he confirmed her suspicion. "I know what really happened," he said as he cupped her face. He looked at her with love in his eyes.

"Are you ok?" he asked. His voice with low and filled with genuine concern and love. Haley couldn't help it. She broke down and leaned into him.

"No, I'm not. Not really," she said into his shoulder. His arms came around her as he pulled her closer to him. He didn't say that she would be fine and that she would be able to put it behind her; he knew that that was condescending. He just held her and kissed her head.

"It's ok," he whispered soothingly. Haley was still crying as she moved her head and looked up at him.

"Thank you," she choked out through her tears. He shook his head saying that there was no need to thank him. He kissed her softly and pulled her closer.


	15. Justice is Served

Justice is Served (Chapter Fifteen) 

A MONTH LATER

Haley sat outside the courtroom with Nathan. She was sitting on one of the benches near the doors to the room she had to walk in and testify in soon. Nathan handed her a plastic cup full of water and Haley smiled gratefully. She was dressed in a very simple and plain light blue shirt and skirt. She had on white sandals and was jiggling her legs nervously. Nathan put his right hand down on her left knee. Haley stopped moving it. "You're going to get through this," he said. Haley put her left hand on his hand that was on her knee.

"There's a reason I haven't been to most of the trial. I don't think I can walk in there and look at him," she said.

"Haley, you're one of three women he's raped. The other two women are, like, in their twenties and they both have had past relationships with him," Nathan said. Haley found it disgusting that a college kid had passed himself off as a high school senior just to find some unsuspecting girl to rape. "The defence can come up with an argument that their rapes were actually consensual sex, but you're the only one of his victims that did not date him. Your testimony will put him in chains, literally," Nathan continued.

"I know that," she said. Haley felt like she was going to jump out of her skin, she was so scared.

Nathan looked at Haley closely. She was shaking. They had watched some classic scary movies together and Haley had not really been scared by any of them, but if she was startled by something in the movie, she would jump and Nathan would have an excuse to pull her closer. She would insist that she was just startled, not scared. But looking at her now, he had never seen her more scared. He put his arm around her and pulled her to him. He massages her right shoulder with his hand and kissed her temple. "You are one of the strongest and courageous people I have ever met. You will be able to do this and then that bastard will go to jail where he can never hurt you again," he said. Then the courtroom doors opened.

"Miss James, we're ready for you," the bailiff said. Haley looked at Nathan and he drew her closer for a second.

"You'll be fine. I'll be in the room the whole time," he promised. Haley nodded. She walked in the courtroom and Nathan waited a few seconds before entering himself. When he entered the room, Haley was already swearing that she would tell the truth and nothing but. He sat down beside Lucas, Peyton and Brooke in the third row on the prosecution's side.

Haley brought her hands to her mouth and blew warm breath on them. They were still ice cold. The prosecutor stood up and smiled at her. "First of all, I want to thank you for coming, Miss James. I know this can't be easy for you," he said.

"You're welcome," she said. To her knowledge, not many of the people in the courtroom knew that Brian had a third victim. They knew he was being charged with statutory rape, but they did not know why. Haley guessed the prosecutor wanted an element of surprise. The media had no idea that Haley was a third victim.

"Can you tell me how you came to know the defendant?" the prosecutor asked. Haley took a deep breath.

"I knew him from school," she said.

"Oh, you mean from the college he was attending right? Duke University?" he asked. Haley shook her head.

"No. I'm not in college," she replied simply.

"Oh, what grade were you in when you met the defendant?" he asked. Haley sighed.

"I was and still am in grade eleven at Tree Hill High," she replied. "So, the defendant was visiting the school in some way?" he asked. Haley shook her head. "He was enrolled as a senior in the school. He claimed that he had just transferred there," Haley said.

"Objection. What relevance does this witness serve?" the defence attorney said.

"I'm establishing relevance, Your Honour. This witness has been on the list for a long time. The defence had a lot of time to review this witness' statement. It is not the state's problem if the defence does not know how to do its job," the prosecutor said.

"Overruled. You may proceed, Mr. Kaiser, but no more petty insults," the judge said. Kaiser nodded and then looked at Haley and smiled reassuringly.

"And what was your relationship with the defendant?" he asked.

"I was his tutor," she said.

"And how long had you been tutoring him?" he asked.

"For about four weeks," she replied.

"And when was the last time you saw the defendant?" he asked.

"There was a party thrown about a month ago on a Friday night. I ran into Brian there," she said.

"Can you describe your interaction with the defendant?" he asked.

"He wanted to talk to me about a test I was tutoring him for that would take place the next Monday. He took me to a room upstairs and then, he…" Haley started.

"What did he do?" Kaiser asked.

"He kissed me. At first, I thought maybe he got the wrong impression so I quickly explained to him that I was here with my boyfriend and that our relationship was strictly tutoring," Haley replied.

"And then what happened?" he asked. Haley took a deep breath.

"He just laughed. He threw me down onto the bed and then…" she started but stopped as she finally caught a glimpse of Brian. He was glaring at her warningly.

"Then, what happened?" Kaiser asked. Haley was paralysed with fear so she didn't even hear him. "Miss James?" Kaiser asked. Haley looked back at him. "What happened?" he asked.

Haley glared right at Brian and said, "He raped me." The whole courtroom erupted in gasps and excitement.

"Order! Order in the court!" The judge exclaimed, slamming his gavel down. He looked to the prosecutor and then to Haley. "Miss James, is your testimony true?" he asked her carefully.

"Yes," she replied.

"Thank you, Miss James. Your witness," Kaiser said and then looked at the defence attorney. The attorney stood up and walked slickly over to the jury.

"Miss James, what happened after my client and you had sex?" he asked.

"After your client raped me, two people walked into the room," she said. He nodded and then looked at her curiously.

"Did you know these two people?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, shrugging to indicate that she didn't understand where he was going with this.

"Objection. Relevance?" Kaiser said.

"I'm establishing motive, Your Honour," he said.

"I'll allow it. Sustained," he said.

"And who were these people in relation to you?" he asked.

"Well, one of them was my best friend's girlfriend, Brooke Davis," she replied. He nodded.

"And the other?" he asked.

"The other was my boyfriend, Nathan Scott," Haley replied carefully.

Nathan looked at Peyton and the others. "Where's he going with this?" he asked them. Peyton shrugged.

"I don't know," Peyton replied. Brooke looked at him and then at Brian. "Uh oh," she said softly.

"What?" he asked.

"I know where he's going with this," Brooke said.

"How long had you been dating your boyfriend?" he asked.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Haley replied.

"Answer the question, Miss James," the judge instructed.

"About three or four months," she replied.

"And when your boyfriend walked in on you and my client, what was his reaction?" he asked.

"He was mad," she replied.

"Why?" he asked.

"He thought that I was cheating on him," she replied. The lawyer nodded.

"Interesting. So what happened?" he asked.

"He broke up with me," Haley admitted. The attorney nodded again.

"Isn't it true that when you went to school the following Monday every one had known that you had cheated on your boyfriend, so your reputation was destroyed?" he asked. Haley shook her head.

"Everyone assumed that what Nathan said was true. No one but the police knew the whole story at that point. And I guess you could say that people didn't see me how they once did when they believed what Nathan had told them," Haley replied. Nathan felt so guilty about what he had put her through. If only he had not reacted the way he did when he walked in the room that night. If only he had let her explain things to him.

"I see. So your boyfriend had dumped you and you were probably devastated by that, right?" he asked.

"Of course I was," Haley replied. Her eyes were narrowed in anger now.

"So devastated that you would say that my client raped you just to redeem yourself in your boyfriend's eyes?" he suggested. Haley shook her head.

"Your client did rape me," she clarified.

"How is anyone supposed to take you seriously?" he asked.

"Because the rape kit that the hospital performed collected your client's semen," she replied.

"You and my client had consensual sex," the lawyer offered. Haley laughed.

"In your client's dreams," she replied flatly. Nathan smirked proudly at her. She was handling herself very well.

"Just one more question, Miss James. Are you and your boyfriend back together?" he asked. Haley nodded. "Because you told him that you had been raped?" he asked. Haley smiled at him sarcastically as she shook her head.

"No, I didn't tell him. A friend betrayed my confidence and told him," she replied. The defence attorney sighed heavily. He knew his plan had just blown up in his face.

"No further questions," he said. The judge nodded and looked over to Haley.

"You may step down," he said. Haley nodded and stood up slowly. The bailiff came over to help her but she waved him off and then smiled at him appreciatively. She walked passed the prosecution and defence tables and stopped in front of the first row where the other two victims sat. She was about to sit down and then thought better of it. She shook her head and walked to the third row and sat down beside Nathan. She would not live in the role of a victim anymore.

TWO WEEKS LATER 

Haley walked into Nathan's house and smiled as she walked into the kitchen. "Wow, you certainly seem happy about something," Deb announced as she saw Haley.

"How did you get in here?" she asked.

"Mr. Scott let me in," Haley replied. "Is Nathan here?" she asked. Deb nodded.

"He's in his room getting ready for the game. I didn't realize that he wanted you to come here," Deb said.

"He usually needs his time alone before a big game," Dan said, coming into the room.

"Oh, I know that. I just have really good news that I need to tell him. I just can't wait until after the game to tell him," she said.

"Nevertheless, I think it should wait. I don't want my boy distracted," Dan said. Haley nodded in understanding.

"I know that, Mr. Scott and I promise that Nathan will be fully aware for tonight's game. If anything, this should take a distraction away from him," she replied.

"Haley, go on into Nathan's room," Deb said, glaring at Dan. Haley smiled appreciatively at Deb and walked up the stairs and down the hall. She knocked on Nathan's door.

"Come in," he said. Haley opened the door and walked in. Nathan was just pulling a shirt over his head. He smiled when he saw her. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?" he asked, hugging her when she walked over to him. She kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time but I have something to tell you," she said. He faltered for a minute.

"Contrary to what my dad says, Haley, my whole life is not about basketball. There are other things that I care about," he said, smiling as he looked at her. She smiled.

"Well, that being said, I hope I'm one of those things," she said. He nodded.

"You already know the answer to that. What did you want to tell me?" he asked.

"I was in court today," she announced. He stopped moving things into his bag and turned around and looked at her. He sat down.

"Why would you ever go back there?" he asked.

"Because I wanted to see it to its end, Nathan," she replied.

"Okay. What happened?" he asked.

"The jury came back," she replied. He couldn't tell if she was happy or not. Her face remained emotionless, but there was a sense of unhappiness in her eyes. "They found him guilty of two counts of rape in the second degree, one count of rape in the first degree and one count of statutory rape," she replied smiling.

"That's amazing! How long is he going away?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know. Sentencing is tomorrow, but the prosecutor is going to ask for the maximum sentence," she replied. He pulled her closer and kissed her head.

"You're safe now," he said. She smiled.

"I'm always safe when I'm with you, Nathan. Now, I just have reassurance," she corrected him.

"Maybe now I'll actually be able to win this game," he said, smiling. She laughed.

"I love you," she said quietly. He looked at her and nodded.

"I love you too," he said. Then, he lowered his head and met her lips and kissed her deeply. First, it was gentle, but then it became more passionate and Haley put her arms around his neck. He gently brought her down to the bed and wrapped her in his arms as he continued to kiss her. She began to squirm nervous and he stopped kissing her. He knew it was going to be a while before she felt comfortable around a guy again. He could see the fear in her eyes as he looked down at her, but he smiled reassuringly. He would never hurt her like that and he said, "I'm glad that everything worked out." He pushed himself up and pulled her up gently with him. "I'll see you at the game," he said kissing her gently one last time for now. She smiled.


	16. Changes

**Ch-Ch-Changes **(Chapter Sixteen)

TWO YEARS LATER

Haley walked into school on her first day of senior year and was surprised at how different things looked. She had been away for the entire summer and while the school itself hadn't changed much, she found that she had changed drastically. She was no longer the naïve little tutor girl that Brooke liked to tease. She was no longer the yin to Nathan Scott's yang. And that had bothered her for a long time since she left, but not anymore. She had come back to Tree Hill with one thing on her mind: Finishing high school and getting on with her life. She was not going to dwell on the past anymore. She was through with feeling like Nathan and she should still be together when that was clearly not what he wanted. He made his choice and clearly intended to stick to it.

(FLASHBACK)

"So, you've been fooling around behind my back, huh?" Haley asked. Nathan looked at her. His eyes were full of regret.

"I'm sorry, Haley. I never wanted you to find out like this," he said, holding Heather Mitchell's hand close to him. Haley laughed cruelly.

"You didn't want me to find out at all," she said.

"That's not true, Haley. I was going to tell you," Nathan said.

"Oh, really? When were you going to tell me, at your wedding three years from now?" Haley asked sarcastically.

"You're overreacting," Heather said. Haley turned to face her and smiled at her sarcastically.

"How nice of you to be so kind to point that out to me. I'm overreacting. I didn't realize being upset and angry when you find out your boyfriend of two and a half years has been cheating on you was overreacting. But it seems as if the slut has put me in my place," she said, laughing.

Nathan walked over to her and tried to put his hands on her shoulder to calm her down like he had so many times before, but she backed away. "Don't even try it," Haley warned.

"Look, I know how this must look, Hales. I know how angry you must be right now and how upset," he started but Haley just shook her head.

"Are you seriously going to try to tell me that you understand how I'm feeling? You don't understand because you're not the one who's been cheated on. You did the cheating, not me," she said. Nathan looked down. "Do you know what the worst part of this is, Nathan? I loved you and I trusted you. After everything that we've been through, and I know we've had our ups and downs, I wouldn't trade one second of it. I was actually upset about the fact that I was going to be leaving you all alone this summer. And now…" Haley started but her sentence trailed off. He looked at her expectantly. "Now I don't really care if I ever see you again," she said, turning around and walking away.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

She flinched at the memory but then headed to her locker. She put some books in it and headed straight for the tutoring centre. She felt at home again in the tutoring centre. She smiled at some of the students. Then she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around and smiled when she saw Lucas. "I thought I was hallucinating when I saw you at your locker!" he exclaimed. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a huge bear hug.

"I missed you too, Luke," she said.

"So where did you go exactly? Your mom wasn't really specific with the details," he said. Haley smiled.

"I went on tour," she replied. He looked at her in surprise.

"You did?" he asked. Haley nodded.

"With who?" Lucas asked.

"Two wonderful girls named Holly Garrett and Stephanie Hall," she said. He looked at her in confusion. "They're Canadians and I was in Canada on tour," she explained. He nodded.

"And how was touring the Great White North?" he asked. Haley laughed.

"It was great. We hit all kinds of places. Toronto, Kingston, Milton, Guelph, Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec City, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon," she started to explain.

"That's great for you, Hales. I'm just glad to have you back here. I know Tree Hill can be boring but it just isn't the same without you here," he said. Haley smiled.

"Aww. I missed you too," she teased.

"I didn't miss that so much, though," he said, laughing. Haley shrugged.

"Yeah, well, get used to it. So how is everyone else?" Haley asked.

"Everyone else?" he repeated.

"Yeah. Jake, Peyton, Brooke and Nathan," she said. He looked at her in surprise.

"Nathan? You really care?" he asked. Haley nodded.

"Of course. I assume he's still with, uh, what's her name, right?" she said.

"Heather and, no, he's not still with her," Lucas replied. Haley looked at him in confusion.

"Ok, Hales, what's up?" he asked. Haley looked at him innocently. "Why do you care what's going on with Nathan?" he asked.

"He and I dated for a while, Lucas. It's only natural for me to still care about him," she said.

"As I recall, you didn't care for him so much before you left. You hated him," he said.

"I'm over that, Lucas. Nathan and I are not meant to be. It was obvious from the start and I'm sorry that it went on as long as it did," she said. He looked at her in shock.

"You're actually serious, aren't you?" Lucas asked. Haley nodded.

"Of course I am. I'm not the type to lie. When have I ever done that?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I'm just surprised. I mean, you're a forgiving kind of person, Hales, but to forgive Nathan so quickly and easily is beyond amazing. You should be eligible for sainthood," he said, laughing.

"Ha, ha. It wasn't easy to forgive him and you know it. I just figured that there's no point in dwelling on something that I can't change," Haley said.

"If you say so," he said.

"I do," Haley said.

Nathan Scott pulled into the school a few minutes early. He sighed as it dawned on him that this was the last first day of high school he'd ever have to endure. He smiled at the thought. He grabbed his duffel bag and headed into the school and to his locker.

At lunch, he headed to his cousin's locker and was surprised to see that neither Brooke nor Lucas was there. He walked to the cafeteria and found that Lucas, Brooke, Peyton and Jake were all sitting down at the usual table. But there was someone else there. This was the one person Nathan had dreaded running into again for three months and now that Haley was back, he knew he'd have to face her sometime. He just didn't know what to do. Should he be nice? Should he just not say anything to her and sit down? Should he try to apologize again? Would it make any difference what he did?

He had blown it with Haley so many times but the last time was the biggest screw up he'd ever made. He cheated on her with someone who was only using him to get back at her old boyfriend. That relationship had lasted about two months and then it had disintegrated and Nathan had felt like the biggest fool on the face of the earth. He probably was too.

He had devastated the person that he loved more than anything in the world. He knew he had completely destroyed her when she found out. The memory of her face when she caught him with Heather was burned into his memory for all time. He had never seen her so shattered. She had been raped before- violated beyond imagination- and it seemed to him that that had been nothing compared to what he had done to her.

He shook his head with the thoughts and decided to just see what would happen. He walked over nervously and sat down beside Peyton. He smiled at everyone. For a while, he wouldn't meet Haley's penetrating gaze. When he looked up, he was shocked to see that she was looking at him. That in itself surprised him, but the emotions in her eyes completely shocked him. There was no anger, no hurt or any trace of resentment. She actually seemed concerned. For him. "Are you ok?" she asked. It took him a few minutes to get over the feeling of absolute astonishment at the fact that she'd actually spoken to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's good to see you back," he said, nodding. She smiled appreciatively.


	17. Moving On

**Moving On **(Chapter Seventeen)

Haley began eating her food while the others carried on a conversation about their summer. Peyton was describing her part-time job at THUD Magazine. "It's awesome. They're even talking about giving me a recommendation for the art school I want to go to," she said.

"That's awesome, Peyton," Nathan said. Peyton smiled.

"Well, I've got to head to the tutoring centre," Haley said, getting up.

"Some things never change," Brooke quipped. Haley rolled her eyes as she left. She walked into the tutoring centre. She started going through files as Nathan walked in.

"So, I put in a request for another tutor for you," he said. Haley turned around. She shrugged.

"All right. If that's what you want," she said, turning back around.

"I thought that you would want it," he said. Haley sighed.

"No, Nathan. I have no problem with being your tutor," she said.

"Really?" he asked. Haley nodded. "Why? After what I did, how can you stand to be around me?" he asked. Haley cracked a smile.

"Nathan, you don't have to be a martyr. I'm a big girl and I'm over what happened. I don't hold grudges," she said. Nathan laughed.

"Tigger, anyone?" he asked, referring to the grudge Haley held against Brooke.

"That's different. Brooke attacked a member of my family and she didn't express the least bit of remorse over what she did to Taylor. I know you're sorry for what you did," she said. He nodded.

"Well, thanks. I appreciate it," he said.

"No problem," she said.

Haley and Nathan were in the tutoring centre a week and a half later. Haley was helping him with his chemistry homework. "I hate this stuff," he said.

"Then, why'd you take it?" Haley asked.

"I didn't have a choice. It was either this or take another history and I'd take five science classes before I took another history," he said. Haley laughed.

"Give that to me. You can't be that bad. You got a good grade in your chemistry unit last year," she said, taking the book from the paper from him and looking it over.

"Well?" he asked.

"You've got all, but one right, Nathan," Haley said. He took it back from her and looked at it in disbelief. The question he got wrong was the one that he was working on before he took the page from her. "You've just got the wrong metal, Nathan. Look over the periodic table and then apply the information and you'll be fine," she said.

"Thanks," he said. Then a guy named Chad Holmes walked in. "Hey, Haley," he said.

"Hey, Chad," she said, looking up at him and smiling.

"We're still on for tonight, right?" he asked. Haley smiled.

"Of course," she said. Chad smiled.

"Awesome," he said and then left. Nathan looked at her cautiously. "What's tonight?" he asked.

"Oh, Chad and I have a date tonight," she said simply. Nathan was glad she was looking down at her own homework because she didn't see his face fall or notice that he was falling apart inside.

"Oh," he said breathlessly.


	18. The Date with a Surprising Ending

**The Date with a Surprising Ending **(Chapter Eighteen)

Haley smiled when she opened her door and Chad Holmes stood there with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. "Thanks," she said as he handed them to her. He nodded. She left to give them to her mother who promised to put them in water. She walked out of the house and followed Chad. "So, where are we going?" she asked as he put the car into gear and pulled out of her driveway.

"A party at Brooke's, actually," he said. Haley laughed at him.

"No, seriously," Haley said. He just looked at her.

"I'm not kidding," he insisted. Haley shuddered at the memory of the last party she'd been to. It had ended horribly and this party didn't look very promising, but she would try to make the most of it.

Nathan sat down on a random couch in someone's house. He knew it wasn't Brooke's. He'd been to her actual house. "Hey, Nathan. How are you doing?" Peyton asked, sitting down beside him.

"Peachy," he replied sarcastically. Peyton couldn't help but crack a smile. That was the first time she had ever heard him say that.

"Just trying to make conversation," she said as he glared at her.

"Pick another question," he said.

"I guess you've seen Haley and Chad," Peyton said. He looked at her in annoyance.

"Thanks for reminding me," he said.

"Please. Like you could ever forget seeing your ex-girlfriend on the arm of some slime," she said, laughing. He looked at her in amazement.

"You're really not good at cheering people up, you know," he said. Peyton smiled.

"I'm not trying to cheer you up, Nathan. I'm trying to get you to smarten up," she said. He looked at her in confusion. "You know that Haley isn't happy with Chad. Half the room can tell that she's getting pretty angry about the fact that he's drinking and hanging out with his jerk friends all the time. There's actually a pool on when she'll burst," Peyton said. That cracked a smile.

"What does that have to do with me?" he asked, shrugging.

"Nathan, don't be stupid. You know you love Haley. You keep looking over there every ten seconds," she said.

"No, I don't," he said.

"You just did it," Peyton pointed out.

"You're imagining things," he said.

"Am I also imagining Haley looking at you?" she asked. Nathan looked at Haley instantly. Haley looked away from him. Peyton laughed. "I should get my head examined then," Peyton said, nodding to herself.

"No. You're a genius," he said, shaking his head and Peyton laughed.

"Well, go over there and talk to her," she said. He was about to when he saw Haley walk over to Chad. She was talking to him angrily. He shrugged and she stomped off. She approached them. "Peyton, can you please drive me home?" she asked, looking quite upset. Peyton shook her head. "Sorry, Hales. Jake is my ride and he's outside playing basketball with some of the guys so I might never get out of here," Peyton said.

"I'll drive you if you want," Nathan said.

"No, that's ok. You should stay and enjoy the party," Haley said.

"No, I was just about to leave. This party is boring. They're not as fun as they used to be. I think Brooke might be losing her touch," Nathan said. Peyton laughed.

"Don't let her hear you say that," Peyton warned, still chuckling.

Nathan took Haley by the hand and led her outside. They got into the car without a word and Nathan started driving. A few minutes later, Haley laughed. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"I can't believe I went out with that asshole," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"The date was worse than the last time I went to one of these parties," she said, chuckling. He smiled at that because he knew that the last time he had been an ass to her. At least fifteen minutes passed as Nathan pulled into Hale's driveway.

"Haley," Nathan started. Haley looked at him in confusion. "Did you go out with Chad to make me jealous?" he asked. Haley widened her eyes.

"No. Why would you think that?" Haley asked. He sighed.

"Well, because I get the idea that you still have feelings for me," he said.

"Well, of course I do," she said. He was shocked that she had the guts to admit it.

"You do?" he asked.

"Well, those feelings just don't go away, Nathan," she said. Without thinking, Nathan leaned over and kissed her. Haley responded to the kiss and pulled Nathan closer to her. Somehow they ended out of the car, into Haley's empty house, up the stairs and into her room. The next morning, Haley opened her eyes groggily and widened them when she saw that she was on someone's bare chest. She looked down at herself and realized that she wasn't wearing anything. Then, she looked up and saw Nathan asleep. His arms were pulled around her, pinning her to his body. It finally dawned on her that they had slept together.


	19. Safe Place to Hide

**Safe Place to Hide** (Chapter Nineteen)

The next morning, Haley opened her eyes groggily and widened them when she saw that she was on someone's bare chest. She looked down at herself and realized that she wasn't wearing anything. Then, she looked up and saw Nathan asleep. His arms were pulled around her, pinning her to his body. Haley moved her right leg and it brushed against his and the hair on his leg made goose bumps on her skin.

Nathan smiled as he felt Haley moving. He was already awake, of course. He couldn't stay asleep for very long. He was afraid that it might turn out to be a dream. "Are you awake?" she asked. He nodded slowly as he turned his head down to her. He opened his eyes and smirked at her.

"Morning," he said. Haley chuckled as she lightly slapped his chest. "Any regrets?" he asked. She shook her head. "How do you feel?" he asked. Haley stopped to think for a second. At first, she had been scared. Scared of how she felt about him, about what they had done and what it meant for them, but she wasn't anymore.

"I feel safe," she said softly. He looked at her in confusion. "I know it sounds weird, but when I'm in your arms, I feel like everything's all right. I don't think about school. I don't think about my parents' fighting or the fact that my siblings and I are practically strangers right now. I just feel safe," she said, smirking and rested her head on his chest.

"I know what you mean and I feel the same way. As long as I have you, all the other things are ok with me. I don't care that my dad's an obsessive jerk. I don't care that Whitey yells at me and bears a striking resemblance to a bear sometimes," Nathan said. Haley laughed at the description of Whitey.

"So we're each other's safe place," Haley said, chuckling. He pulled her closer and kissed her hair.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"How is basketball anyways?" she asked. She was the only girl he'd ever dated that actually took an interest in his life and how he was doing and he loved that about her.

"We've got a game against Cove City next week," he said.

"I remember Luke telling me about them. He said that the team is really good and that it's going to be hard to defeat them," Haley said. Nathan nodded.

"Oh, it's going to be difficult, that's for sure," he said.

"You'll pull through," she said. He chuckled.

"You really think so?" he asked. Haley looked up at him and nodded.

"I have faith in your ability to throw a ball through a hoop," she joked. He laughed and tickled her. She giggled and squirmed beside him. "But most of all, I believe in you," she said seriously. He smiled down at her and moved closer to kiss her.

"I love you," he said when he pulled away. "And I've missed you," he said. Haley smiled and nodded.

"Same here," she said in agreement and kissed him back.

"Now I think it's time that I head back," he said. Haley wrapped her arms around him to stop him from moving. He laughed as he pulled one of her arms and then her other arm away from him. Once he had done that, she threw the arm he had removed first back to where it was. "Haley, come on," he said.

"Just a few more minutes," she whined. He looked at her thoughtfully and then laid back down.

"Ok," he said and kissed her as she laughed against his lips.


	20. Tragedy Strikes

**Tragedy Strikes** (Chapter Twenty)

Haley walked into school on Monday morning with an overwhelming sense of anxiety. She couldn't explain it but she felt like something bad was going to happen that day. Things seemed normal, but there was a tense feeling in school that day. She pulled books out of her locker and then went to her first period English class.

The door opened and two male students walked in. There was nothing really unusual about them. Haley had seen them before and she even tutored one of them; Jason Trip. But there was a look on his face that worried her. He looked at everyone as if they were insects and Haley was wondering why when he pulled a semiautomatic pistol out from his pocket, raised it in the air and fired three shots up in the air. "Everyone shut up!" Jason's friend screamed.

Nathan needed no encouragement. As soon as he heard the shots, he knelt down. "Sit down cross-legged against the wall and put your hands on your laps. Just in case any of you are planning to play the part of the big hero, I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I have five grenades in my backpack and I will not hesitate to use them," he said. Everyone slowly made their way to the wall of the classroom and sat down. Nathan saw Haley frozen in place at her desk, shaking. He walked over to her, put his arm around her and led her to the wall. He sat her down beside him and made sure that their legs were touching so she knew that he was there with her. She seemed to get the message and put her hands down firmly on her laps.

Jason came over to the group and stood a few feet away from Nathan and Haley and held a gun pointed at them. "If you think this is going to be one of those school shootings you see on the news, you're wrong. Our problem is not with you. We don't want to hurt any of you," Jason said.

"So, why not just let us go?" Nathan asked. Jason glared at him.

"As I was saying: we don't want to hurt any of you, but that doesn't mean we won't if you get in the way. Don't do anything stupid; do what you're told and none of you will get hurt," he said. Then the door opened and their English teacher walked in. Jason's friend walked over and stuck a gun in Mr. Raymond's face. "Put your hands behind your head," he ordered. Mr. Raymond looked confused for a minute, like he didn't think the guy was serious. "Get over to the wall," he ordered. Mr. Raymond looked at him still. The guy cocked the hammer of the gun and it made a disturbing clicking noise. Nathan knew that he had just turned the safety off.

"Do it now!" he screamed. Mr. Raymond put his hands behind his head and joined the students on the floor.

"What is going on, Ethan? Is this some kind of sick joke?" he sneered.

"That's all you think I do, isn't it? Does this look like I'm kidding?" he asked, waving the very real gun in his face. Haley whimpered as Ethan continued to threaten their teacher. Mr. Raymond wasn't the most popular teacher at the school. In fact, most of the students hated him because if you weren't particularly smart in English, he tended to humiliate you in front of everyone, which is exactly what he did to Ethan Connor. Nathan unconsciously moved his hand onto Haley's lap and gave one of her hands a reassuring squeeze. Then a gun was pointed at them. "I specifically told you to keep your hands in your lap, Scott," Jason ordered.

"I was just trying to comfort my girlfriend. And, by the way, waving a gun in her face isn't helping her," he said as he calmly moved his hand back to his own lap. Haley could tell that Nathan had hit a nerve with Jason because he just put his gun in Nathan's face.

"Do you think this is a game, Scott? It's not. So, don't push me," Ethan warned from where he was standing. Nathan looked scared.

"For god sakes, he's only trying to protect me. Please get your gun out of his face," Haley begged. Jason's face softened at Haley's voice and he pulled the gun away from Nathan. But things were far from over.


	21. When Hope is Shattered

**When Hope is Shattered **(Chapter Twenty-one)

It had been almost twenty minutes since Jason Trip and Ethan Connor had taken Mr. Raymond and his entire first period English class hostage and locked them all inside of room 221. A student had walked by the room and looked into the little window of the door to the classroom and realized what had happened. He ran down to the principal's office where the secretary told him to slow down. "I need to see Principal Senate now," he said breathlessly.

"What you need to do is sit down and wait," the secretary told him firmly. The student shook his head and ran past the desk to the area where the principal and vice principals' offices were. He walked in and saw that Principal Senate was in a meeting.

"Principal Senate, I need to talk to you," he said urgently. "It's really important."

"I'm sure it is, but as you can see, Mr. Scott, I'm in a meeting. I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside," Principal Senate said, getting up and starting to shut the door but Lucas stuck his foot out to block him. "You better remember your place, Mr. Scott," he said angrily.

"But they have guns," Lucas blurted out. Principal Senate froze and opened the door. Lucas quickly explained what he saw. Principal Senate jumped to life and started writing down on a piece of paper that all classrooms were to be put into lockdown and the police were to be notified, which the secretary did.

"I want you to go photocopy as many of these as you can. Take them to every class you pass on your way back to your own class. Then, give this to your teacher," he said. Lucas nodded.

"Then what?" he asked.

"That's it. Stay in your class after that stay calm and do what your teacher tells you to," he said. Lucas looked at him in disbelief and then laughed. "What's so funny?"

"My cousin and best friend are locked in a classroom with two armed maniacs and you want me to do nothing?" Lucas asked. Senate just looked at him. "Seriously?"

"What exactly do you think you can do?" Senate asked.

"Anything I can," Lucas replied.

"Once the police arrive, there will probably be a negotiator who will contact the students. That's how this situation will be resolved. It will not be resolved by you going into that classroom half-cocked and do or say something that could get yourself, your cousin, your best friend, the teacher and the rest of the students killed," Principal Senate said, looking at him sympathetically. Lucas nodded and took the piece of paper.

Mr. Raymond's cell phone rang in his briefcase on one of the desks and he started to reach for it, but Ethan was there and put the gun in front of his face. "Don't move a muscle," he said. Mr. Raymond looked at him.

"If I don't answer that, whoever it is will know that something is wrong because I always answer it," he said to him. Ethan nodded and then pointed the gun at Haley, whose eyes widened in fear. Nathan put one of his arms out in front of her in an attempt to protect her.

"You get up and get it. Then, tell me who it is," Ethan said. Haley remained where she was. "Do it now," Jason said. Haley shook her head and Nathan nodded at her to do it. Ethan looked at them and then revealed a second gun in his left hand and pointed it at Nathan. Haley's eyes widened at him. "Get the phone or I'll shoot him and believe me, I won't miss," he said. Haley got up and walked over.

"It's the police," she said and handed him the phone, but Ethan wouldn't take it.

"Answer it," he ordered. Haley shrugged and pushed the green little phone button.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello. My name is Sergeant Brown of the Tree Hill Police. I'm a hostage negotiator. To whom am I speaking?" a voice asked.

"Haley James," she replied softly.

"Miss James, have I reached the classroom with the gunmen?" he asked. Haley looked at Ethan and Jason. She could see Ethan fitting that description but it was weird to think of Jason as a "gunman".

"Yes," she replied.

"Have they killed anyone?" he asked.

"No."

"Shot or injured anyone in anyway?" he asked.

"No, but they're not shy about threatening to or putting the guns in people's faces," she replied almost harshly.

"Who is that?" Ethan demanded coming closer to her, but keeping his gun on Nathan.

"If that's one of them, let me speak to him," Sergeant Brown said. Haley handed the phone and explained to Ethan who it was. Ethan grabbed her and put one arm around her, locking her other arms at her sides while holding a gun to her head as if daring someone to make a move while he was on the phone.

"Yes?" Ethan demanded. There was a little bit of conversation but Haley couldn't tell what Sergeant Brown was saying. "What do I want? I want to kill my teacher. What do you want?" Haley shivered as she stood with him.

Nathan's veins turned to ice water as Ethan pushed the gun harder into Haley's neck when the negotiator had said something that had pissed him off. He told the negotiator that he had a gun pointed at Haley's neck and if the negotiator said something insulting again, he would not hesitate to shoot her. The negotiator had probably responded by telling him that he said he wanted to kill his teacher, not his fellow classmates. Ethan laughed and said, "That doesn't mean that she won't pay for your stupidity."

Haley looked at Nathan in terror. Nathan clenched his fists as he realized he couldn't do anything to help her. If he even tried to make a move at that particular moment, Ethan could easily blow Haley away. Jason could shoot one of the other students in retaliation. Nathan had realized from the beginning that they were in this for the long haul. Before they killed Mr. Raymond, they wanted to torture him or scare him. Perhaps even by killing other students because he was an ass.

Ethan slammed the phone down and let go of Haley. He pushed her forward hard. Haley held out her arms as she went flinging into the wall or to the ground, but Nathan made a move and caught her before she hit the wall. They were a few feet away from other people and Nathan sat down and wrapped a shaking Haley in his arms. "Shh. It's alright. You're fine," he whispered into her ear and she buried her head into his chest. He could feel her tears soaking his shirt.

Ethan walked over to them and instructed them to sit down and be quiet. Haley didn't move. In fact she just tightened her arms that were now anchored around Nathan and clung to him. He kissed the top of her head and carefully moved her and told her to do as she was told. "Haley, come with me," Jason said. She started to get up, but Nathan pulled her back.

"No way," he said. Jason laughed and pointed a gun to him.

"Don't be stupid, Scott," he said cocking the gun.

"Do you really think that I'm going to just let you take her so you can use her as a scare tactic for the police?" Nathan demanded.

"If you want to live, you'll do whatever we say," Ethan said from in front of Mr. Raymond.

"Nathan, it's ok. Just do what they say," Haley said, echoing his earlier words. He shook his head. She got up and walked over to Jason.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Jason promised. Nathan looked at him.

"Now why don't I believe you?" he asked, looking at the gun in his hands.

"You're a failure. You can't even hold hostages right," Mr. Raymond said angrily three hours later. Ethan looked at him in amusement.

"And you're incredibly stupid to antagonize someone with a gun," Ethan retorted.

"Stop it!" Haley exclaimed, looking over from the desk that she was seated at. They had Haley sitting down writing out a list of demands that the negotiator suggested they put together. Haley had become the one that both Jason and Ethan trusted and Nathan was not happy about it. It put her in bigger danger than any of them because she was literally closer to both of them. Ethan turned around and pointed one of his guns at him. Nathan panicked as he cocked the safety threateningly again. Haley seemed unfazed for the first time since the whole thing had begun.

"Put your gun down," Haley ordered. Ethan smirked at her in disbelief. "I'm not kidding. If you want my help, don't stick your gun in my face."

Ethan walked over to her and shoved the gun a few inches from her face. Haley dropped the pen on the floor and sat back in the chair, refusing to write anymore. "Pick the pen up," Ethan ordered tiredly. Haley shook her head. "Pick it up," he said raising the gun a little higher and pushing it against the side of her temple.

"You're such a coward," she said folding her arms across her chest in protest. "You need to stick a gun to someone's head to feel like a man. Do you think killing someone will give you the same feeling?" Jason and Ethan both looked at each other. It was clear that they didn't understand what she meant.

"Haley, what are you doing?" Nathan asked not caring that there was fear in his voice. She only looked at him in response. Then she turned her gaze back to Ethan.

"I hope it does. You might as well shoot me because until you take that gun away from my face and agree never to point it at me again, I'm not doing anything for you," she said.

"You're being incredibly stupid," he said.

"Look who's talking. Tell me, Ethan, why are you doing this?" Haley asked.

"I want to teach Mr. Raymond a lesson," Ethan said. Mr. Raymond laughed.

"You teach someone something? Now that is an amusing concept," he said, chuckling softly. Haley even rolled her eyes at the old man's stupidity. Haley was not being stupid. She was trying to get Ethan and Jason to respond to her. She was trying to establish some trust between all of them. She wasn't trying to piss them off.

"What kind of lesson? What did he ever do to you that would make you want to kill him?" Haley asked. Ethan scoffed.

"You don't see what he does every day? Are you really that blind?" he asked. Haley looked at him in confusion.

"He humiliates me in front of everyone on a regular basis because I'm not that good in English. Do you remember when we had to do that poem?" Ethan began. Haley nodded. "I wrote mine about a car. Now what you need to understand is that I wrote it the night before but I still worked hard on it. And what does he do? He picks it up and reads it aloud to the class, making little nasty comments about my 'poor writing skills'. Then when it's finished, he laughs and crumples it up and throws it in the garbage. Then when it was a student/parent/teacher interview last week and my mom asks him why I got an 'F' on the poem, he told her that I never handed it in." Haley turned to her teacher and looked at him with disgust.

"You're a teacher. You're supposed to encourage students to succeed not set them up to fail," she lectured.

"Miss James, I was only doing him a favour and saving the school system a lot of money because we all know where he belongs and it isn't in a classroom. He belongs in jail and this situation should make it all the more obvious why," Mr. Raymond explained.

"That isn't for you to decide. Everyone has a right to an education. When this is over, if you're still alive, you can bet that I'm going to go to the school board," Haley threatened.

"You're siding with them, Haley? Come on, they're the ones with the guns and holding all of us hostage just because their teacher gave them a hard time," Nathan said.

"I'm not condoning this, Nathan. Believe me. I'm the one who has a gun to my head here," Haley said angrily. She would never condone violence. But she understood why they were angry.

"It's easy for you to say, Scott. You may not have good grades, but Mr. Raymond doesn't treat you like crap because you can play basketball. If you couldn't, you wouldn't be so quick to judge us," Jason said. Nathan actually laughed.

"If you want to teach him a lesson, you're going about it the wrong way. Killing him isn't going to do anything but eat away your consciences," Haley said. Ethan scoffed.

"Or get you killed," Nathan added. They looked at him. "You guys really haven't thought this through, have you?" Nathan didn't know exactly what he meant but he knew that it was a good point. He figured Haley would know what he meant. He looked at Haley for help and she looked at him as if she knew where he was going.

"He's right, you know. By now, the police have probably got a SWAT team inside the building. They could be across the street with a gun fixed on you. They could be outside the door or in the vents up above us right now," Haley said.

"What are you babbling about?" Jason asked.

"There is a certain procedure that the police follow when there is a hostage situation. Sending in a negotiator is usually the first step. At some point, the SWAT team might decide to just shoot you so that this whole thing will be over with," Haley said.

"Please," Ethan said.

"It happens in the movies on a regular basis," Haley said.

"This is real life," Ethan argued.

"Well think about it. School shootings happen in movies and on television all the time. Then Columbine happened and shootings started arising all around the country. Do you want to take a guess at what they'll call this?" Haley asked.

"This isn't a school shooting. Those were disgruntled students who came into room after room and open fired on everyone inside. We're not doing that," Jason argued. Haley smirked.

"Right now you're holding a gun up to my head and threatening to pull the trigger. Do you really think that just because you haven't killed anyone or that your vendetta is with a teacher and not a student, you're somehow better than them?" Haley said angrily.

"And Haley never did anything to you. In fact, she's the only one of us who actually cares about you. They just want to get out of here and save their own skin. I want to save Haley. I don't care about what happens to you," Nathan said. "In my opinion, you've already sealed your fate."

Haley sat down at the chair and sighed as Ethan continued to argue with Mr. Raymond. "I should kill you right now," he said. Mr. Raymond smirked.

"If it means I won't have to hear your pathetic whining anymore, go right ahead," Mr. Raymond said. Haley looked at him in disbelief. He seemed to really have a death wish.

"Nobody's killing anyone," Haley said. Ethan turned around to look at her.

"You don't call the shots here, Haley," he reminded her.

"We've been here for over four hours now. Don't you think it's about time that you gave it up and let us go?" Nathan asked.

"Shut up, Scott," Jason barked.

"No. I'm sick of this. We didn't do anything to you. Mr. Raymond may be a jerk but he doesn't deserve to die for it. You guys are just pathetic because things don't always go your way," Nathan said, standing up and walking up to Ethan, who raised the gun up at him.

"Nathan, please, just sit down," Haley said. Nathan shook his head as Ethan aimed the guy a little higher.

"Why don't you stop being a coward? Having that gun doesn't make you tough. You only have it because you know that without it, you wouldn't have any power," Nathan said. Ethan just scoffed.

"Nathan, stop it," Haley said.

Ethan turned around and pointed the gun at Haley's head and started to pull the trigger. "I think I have some power," he said to Nathan.

"You son of a bitch. Let her go. She's done nothing but help you," Nathan said, walking closer to Haley.

"You're not so cocky now, are you?" Ethan taunted.

"Let her go," Nathan repeated. Ethan shook his head. Nathan took an opportunity to move the gun away from Haley and out of Ethan's hand. He shoved Ethan hard and he fell to the ground. Ethan pulled the second gun out and pulled the trigger. Nathan felt a burning in his chest and put his hand up to it. When he pulled them away, there was blood smeared on them. He looked at Haley.

"Nathan!" Haley screamed. She got up and ran to him as he was falling down to the ground. She managed to get there in time to catch him before he fully hit the ground. She quickly sat down and put his head gently down on her lap. She started crying as she watched him gasp for air. "Nathan," she said in misery. He grabbed one of her hands and held it to his chest.

"I love you," he said before his eyes fluttered close.

"No!" Haley exclaimed. "No, no, no." She quickly felt for a pulse and her spirits lifted when there was one. It was weak but it was still there. She took her sweater off to reveal her white spaghetti strap tank top and covered Nathan's wound with the shirt and kept pressure on it. She looked to Ethan and Jason. "Look at what you've done," she exclaimed.

"It went off by accident," Ethan said.

"You aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger. How is that an accident?" Haley screeched as she continued to put pressure on Nathan's wound.

"We'll get him help and let everyone go on one condition," Ethan said. Haley glared at him. She wasn't so caring anymore.

"You may very well have killed someone and you think you're in a position to bargain?" she demanded. He actually smiled at her.

"Your boyfriend's lying on the floor bleeding to death. Do you think you're in a position to argue?" Ethan retorted. Haley looked at him angrily. Then she looked at Nathan who was losing blood as she made this choice.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You get on the phone with the negotiator and tell him to pull all of his men out of the building," he said.

"He'll never agree to it," she said.

"Then Scott's already dead," Ethan said, gesturing to Nathan. Haley nodded and took the cell phone he handed her. She dialled the number and Sergeant Brown answered.

"Miss James. It's nice to hear that you're alive," he said.

"Be quiet and let me say what I have to say. Ethan and Jason have asked me to speak to you on their behalf. They have an offer for you," Haley said.

"I'm listening," Brown said.

"They'll let you bring Nathan Scott out so he can receive medical treatment. Once you've pulled your men out of the building, they'll let us out two people at a time," Haley said.

"Miss James, you know I can't pull my men out," he said. Haley slammed the phone down on the desk so it would hurt his ear. Then she put it back up to her mouth.

"Listen to me very carefully. I've been held here against my will for eight hours. I've had a gun pointed at my head at least a dozen times, my boyfriend is lying on the floor bleeding to death and when I have a chance to be set free, you're telling me no. I'm sick of being jerked around. I want to go home. I want to visit Nathan in the hospital as he recovers. It's our lives you're playing with, not yours. No more games," she exclaimed.

"All right, Miss James," Sergeant Brown said.


	22. The Aftermath 2

**The Aftermath 2** (Chapter Twenty-two)

Haley sat at Nathan's bed in the hospital and tasted tears in her mouth before she realized that she was actually crying. "Your boyfriend is in a coma," the doctor had said. "Your efforts at saving Mr. Scott were admirable and impressive. If he had been released to us immediately, perhaps he would be awake right now, but there was just too much blood loss. There's little hope that he'll ever recover," the doctor had said. Three months now of hearing the same hopeless words from the doctors that had taken care of Nathan and the nurses that continued to monitor his activity. Haley was beginning to give up hope that Nathan would recover. Sometimes there would be a slight jerk of his hand.

"It's normal for a coma patient. I'm sorry," a nurse had told her. Haley's response as she remembered had not been very pleasant. She had been through a lot of ups and downs with Nathan throughout the time they had met and started dating, broke up and then got back together again. She remembered the time where they had gone to a party; Nathan had gotten drunk and said a few mean things to her. How she wished that that was her biggest problem with him. And she wished she could go back in time and make the decision not to dump him after she had found out about Heather. She would have no self-respect, but she would still have Nathan and for obvious reasons, that was fine by her. Lack of self-respect is better than comatose boyfriend any day. Anything is better than having a comatose boyfriend in her books.

"Well, except a dead boyfriend," she muttered to herself. As soon as she said the words, she cursed herself. How stupid could she get? Nathan was lying right next to her and it was almost as if she was planning to get her dress for his funeral picked out already. Haley had always been an optimistic person. It was just what came naturally for her. So why couldn't she be optimistic now?

"Haley," someone said. She jumped at the sound of another voice. It was familiar but the reason she couldn't place it was because she was focusing so much on trying to hear Nathan's which was not there. She turned and smiled at Lucas. "How is he?" Haley's face crumpled and Lucas came over and hugged her. "Hey, it's ok," he said soothingly. He knew it wasn't helping but Haley appreciated the effort. Then she pulled away.

"I keep thinking that if I do or say something, he'll wake up and come back, but…" she said. Lucas nodded.

"I think the best thing you can do is what you're doing; coming to see him, being here for him. He would be doing the same thing for you," Lucas said. Haley nodded.

"You know that crocheted poncho thing that my mom made for me?" she asked. Lucas nodded, clearly not getting where she was going. "Well, I wore it yesterday." Her face crumpled.

"Haley, what is it?" he asked in confusion. Haley cleared her face but to no avail. The tears just keep coming.

"Nathan hates it. I mean, really hates it. Every time I wore it, he told me how ridiculous it looked but I didn't care," Haley said. Lucas nodded, still not getting it. "I wore it yesterday not even remembering that Nathan hated it. But then I realized that he did and…" Her words trailed off for a minute as she sobbed again. "He didn't tell me how much he hated it," she finished.

"Hey, it's all right," he said.

"No, it's not all right! Nathan is here clinging to life and I'm just a huge emotional ball of hormones and it's not what he needs right now," Haley said before silently sobbing against Nathan's motionless body.

"Haley, it's perfectly normal to be upset," Lucas said.

"I am not upset," she said. Haley savagely wiped the tears away from her face and turned around to face Lucas. "I am pissed off!" Her eyes were full of anger. Lucas looked down for a minute. He didn't think it was really appropriate for Haley to say that she was pissed off at Nathan, but then, she pointed out that it was not Nathan she was angry with. "Don't you understand?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I helped them!" she exclaimed. He looked at her in confusion. "I helped them write their list of demands. I defended them against Mr. Raymond and everyone else. I did everything I could to make them let us go."

"And they did," Lucas said. Haley shrugged.

"But what did it get us?" Haley asked.

"Your freedom, Haley, and I can bet there is not a day that will go by where those two and everyone else will not be grateful for what you did," Lucas said.

"What I did wasn't good enough to help Nathan. How ironic is that? I can stop two people who are basically strangers from ruining their lives or ending them, but I couldn't do a thing to help my boyfriend," Haley said.

"Haley, you did everything you could to help Nathan. He wouldn't be in this hospital clinging to life if it weren't for what you did. He'd be six feet under," Lucas said. Haley smirked.

"And those two will most likely get to spend ten years behind bars and then walk free. But Nathan will most likely live as a prisoner in his own body for the next ten months before someone pulls the plug," Haley said.

"Haley," Lucas said.

"It's not fair! Nathan gets sentenced to death just because he was trying to protect me and they get a slap on the wrist," Haley said.

"Their fate hasn't been determined, Haley. They're going on trial and you don't know how it'll turn out," Lucas said. Haley nodded.

"That's true," she agreed.

"There you go," he said.

"For all I know, the jury could come back with a verdict of 'not guilty' or they could even get a mistrial," Haley said cynically.

"Haley, this isn't helping Nathan," Lucas said.

"What?" she asked.

"You're beating yourself up over things that you can't control and that's not what he needs," Lucas said.

"Yeah, what he needs is to be able to turn back time," Haley said. Lucas slammed his fist down on a random counter.

"No damn it! What he needs is his girlfriend and that is you," Lucas said. Haley nodded in agreement and looked at Nathan again. "I'll leave you alone with him," he said. Haley nodded.

"Nathan," Haley said gingerly. There was no response. Not even one number went up on the monitor at all. "I'm sorry that you never got to know. I should've told you sooner but I thought we had all the time in the world."

"Know what?" Dan Scott asked, coming into the room. Haley looked up at him in shock.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked.

"Since Lucas left. Now, what doesn't Nathan know?" Dan asked. Haley panicked for a second but then relaxed when one of the simplest answers popped into her head.

"How I feel about him and how glad I was that I had him back," she said. Dan nodded. There was nothing really that bad about Dan Scott. He had never said or done anything to insult Haley personally or anyone else she cared about. He cared about his son and nephew and was a relatively good husband to his wife. But she knew that he was not the best father in the world. His sick obsession with basketball caused him to put pressure on Nathan and Nathan in turn did stupid things to try to please his father.

"I miss him too, Haley. We all do," he said. Haley nodded. She knew that and she was determined not to let Ethan and Jason get away with what happened. The DA had wanted her to testify for her in the trial because she had most interaction with Jason and Ethan and was obviously one of the closest people to the person who had gotten injured. Now Haley had made up her mind and she sincerely hoped that her testimony would help put them away.

"Ms. James, I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and testify," the DA Marilyn James, Haley's own aunt, said. Haley nodded. "Now, I'm going to start to ask you a few questions and I apologize in advance if they seem too personal or painful."

"It's fine," Haley said.

"How did you know the defendants?" she asked. Haley sighed.

"We all went to school together," Haley replied.

"How well did you know them?" Marilyn asked.

"I didn't know either one of them very well," Haley replied. "I tutored Jason for a while but I never really got to know him personally. I knew his grades. Ethan I didn't know at all other than by name."

"And how were Mr. Trip's grades?" Marilyn asked.

"Objection. The People have no right to know about that and this witness is not a teacher," the defence lawyer argued.

"If their defence is that they went to kill a teacher who made fun of them for their lack of performance, they must be talking about grades. If the jury is to believe them, surely Mr. Trip's tutor can provide some insight," her aunt said. The judge nodded.

"Overruled. You may answer the question, Ms. James," he said. Haley nodded.

"They were below normal," Haley said.

"How much below?" her aunt asked. Haley sighed.

"If he wasn't failing a class, his grades were borderline," she replied.

"So, he's not the brightest tool in the shed, is he?" Marilyn asked. The judge looked at her warningly for the comment, but the defence lawyer was either not paying attention or didn't realize that it was prejudicial.

"He had difficulty in a lot of areas," Haley replied politely. She would never openly call someone stupid no matter how much she hated them. She was a tutor, after all.

"During the time you were held captive, would you say the defendants were hostile?" Marilyn asked. Haley actually scoffed as she nodded.

"They were very aggressive and not shy at all about using their weapons as methods of persuasion," Haley replied.

"But you still defended them?" Marilyn asked. Haley nodded. "So you agree with their methods?"

"Of course not. I defended them, not their actions," Haley said.

"Nothing further," Marilyn said, walking away. "Your witness."

The defence lawyer got up and introduced himself as Joseph Chase. "Throughout the trial, many people have stated that you were sympathetic to the defendants," Chase said. Haley nodded. "Why?"

"I didn't think that the way Mr. Raymond treated them was ok," Haley said.

"So you knew that Mr. Raymond didn't treat them well prior to the attack?" Chase asked. Haley shook her head. "How could you not?"

"I guess I didn't realize it or I didn't pay any particular attention to them," she replied.

"So no one did anything. No one stood up for them; no one went to the principal or anyone else. They were left to deal with the situation on their own," Chase said. Haley scoffed. "Is there something funny, Miss James?"

"Your clients didn't have to deal with it that way," Haley said.

"You admitted that you yourself didn't agree with what Mr. Raymond did. Are you surprised that my clients reacted the way they did?" Chase said. Haley laughed.

"Being mad and upset is one thing. But coming into the school, armed and holding people, who had absolutely nothing to do with it, hostage?" Haley said. She turned to look at Jason and Ethan. "That reaction was beyond outrageous," she said firmly.

"Nothing further for this witness," Chase said angrily.

"You may step down," the judge said appreciatively but her aunt stood up.

"Your Honour, I wish to question this witness," she said. Haley looked at her aunt in confusion. What more was there left to say?

"Objection. This witness has nothing useful left to say," Chase argued.

"Sidebar," the judge said. They argued back and forth but even Haley couldn't hear what they were saying. Then, they all looked at her in shock but the judge turned to her and removed his hand from the microphone. "This is highly irregular," he said.

"I apologize, Your Honour, but I feel that this is something that needs to be touched upon," her aunt said.

"All right," he said.

"Miss James, I apologize in advance for this. I know it won't be easy," she said. Haley looked at her in confusion but nodded. "You were sympathetic. Has that opinion changed?"

"Yes," Haley replied.

"Why?" Marilyn asked.

"There was someone who was injured in the classroom," Haley replied.

"Did you know him?" she asked.

"Yes, I know him. He's my boyfriend," Haley replied.

"And what is his current condition?" Marilyn asked.

"He's in a coma," Haley replied. She expanded on his condition and Haley nodded.

"Now, you obviously miss your boyfriend. But is there something that you were never able to tell him? Something that he'll most likely miss out on?" Marilyn asked. Haley looked at her in confusion.

"I don't know what you mean," Haley replied. Her aunt widened her eyes.

"You know what I mean, Haley. Tell them," Marilyn said. Haley widened her eyes in shock.

"I told you that in confidence not so you can use it to further your career," Haley argued.

"And I apologize for doing this, but it needs to be done. Tell them," Marilyn said. Haley closed her mouth defiantly. Marilyn smirked at the judge.

"Tell the Court or I'll find you in contempt," he said. Haley's jaw tightened.

"What did you find out the day before you were held hostage?" Marilyn asked.

"I found out that…" Haley started.

"Yes?" Marilyn asked. Haley exhaled.

"I'm pregnant," Haley said.


	23. A New Responsibility

**A New Responsibility **(Chapter Twenty-three)

Haley stepped down from the bench and as she walked by, she glared at her aunt who looked at her apologetically. Marilyn grabbed Haley's hand as she was about to go through the little gateway and looked at her. "I'm sorry, Haley. I really am," she said. Haley looked at her in annoyance.

"You should be. Do you realize that Nathan will probably read it in the newspaper before I get a chance to tell him?" Haley asked her.

"I'm really sorry," Marilyn repeated. Haley went on as if she hadn't heard her.

"I can just imagine the headlines. 'Pregnant Hostage Hero's Boyfriend in a Coma While Culprits Stand Trial'," she mocked.

"I really am sorry and I understand how you feel," her aunt said.

"No, you don't. It's bad enough that I'm a pregnant 17-year-old, but now I don't even get to tell my boyfriend before the whole world knows," Haley said, taking her aunt away and leaving.

Lucas sat by Nathan's bed while Haley was in the hospital and was almost convinced he was hearing things when he heard Nathan's voice. "Haley?" Nathan opened his eyes and looked around the room. He was in a hospital.

"She'll be here soon, Nate," Lucas said. Nathan looked at Lucas and looked at him in confusion. Lucas started to explain what had happened. After the doctor left, Nathan looked to Lucas.

"Was Haley hurt?" Nathan asked, concern overpowering the initial shock of hearing that he had been in a coma for three months. Lucas shook his head.

"On the contrary. Haley single-handedly saved the day," Lucas said. Nathan looked at him in confusion.

"After you were shot, Haley like took charge. She made Ethan and Jason realize that if you die, they would go down for murder in the first degree and might end up getting executed," Lucas said.

"Do we even have the death penalty?" Nathan asked. Lucas shrugged.

"If we don't, they could always get transferred out of state," he said. Nathan nodded. "Anyways and then they made her talk to the negotiator." Nathan smiled with pride. His Haley had saved the day.

"Where is she now?" he asked.

"In court," Lucas replied and then explained how Haley was the prosecution's star witness.

"I'm surprised. I thought she would testify for the defence," Nathan said and the started to explain how Haley had defended Jason and Ethan against Mr. Raymond and even Nathan.

"She probably would have if they didn't shoot you," Lucas said. Nathan couldn't help but smirk at Haley's sense of right and wrong. It was like if you held someone hostage you can still be forgiven but as soon as you hurt someone she loved, there would be no forgiveness.

"How has she been doing?" he asked. Lucas shrugged.

"She's had her moments but, overall, she's been fine and at your side," he said. Nathan nodded. "She even took a break from tutoring for a week when after it happened to be with you."

"But she is tutoring now, right?" he asked. Lucas nodded. Just then, the door opened. Nathan could tell it was Haley from the way she walked. She always stepped lightly so she wouldn't disturb anyone. It was annoying sometimes because she snuck up on him a lot since she was so quiet. Haley stopped dead in her tracks when he smiled at her.

"Nathan!" she exclaimed. Her face brightened as she said his name.

"Hey, Hales. Where have you been? You were gone so long that I was beginning to get worried," he said, laughing as annoyance crept on her face. But in an instant, it disappeared. She walked over to him and threw her arms around him. He could feel the tears streaming down her face and when she pulled back, he raised his hand and began wiping them away.

"No more tears. I'm here now," he said. Haley smirked and kissed him.

The next day, Haley had sat down next to Nathan on the bed. "Nathan, there's something I have to tell you," she said. He looked at her in confusion. Just then, the door swung open. Dan Scott walked in, holding a newspaper. He held it up and looked at Haley.

"Is it true?" he asked, glaring at her. Then at his own son.

"Dad, do you mind? We're trying to have a private conversation here," Nathan said in annoyance. His father had the worst timing sometimes.

"About what, daycare?" Dan asked. Nathan's face scrunched with confusion. Then Dan looked at Haley in shock. "You mean you haven't even told him yet?"

"Told me what?" Nathan asked, looking at Haley questioningly.

"I was just about to tell him," Haley replied, slightly ignoring Nathan's intense gaze. This was hard enough. She didn't want his parents there while she told him.

"Why are you waiting until now?" Dan demanded.

"Well, I only found out that day and I wasn't going to tell him then. After that, he was in unconscious for three months," Haley snapped. "So, if you don't mind, I'd like to tell him alone." To Haley's surprise, Dan's face softened and he nodded in understanding. He excused himself and closed the door behind him.

"What's going on, Haley?" Nathan demanded.

"Something's happened that will change our lives forever," she told him. It sounded more like a warning.

"Is it good or bad?" he asked.

"A bit of both. It's wonderful news. I mean, I always dreamed of this happening with you some day, but later on," she replied. "Nathan, I'm pregnant." Haley leaned back to look at his face to see his initial reaction to having a baby with her would mean to him. Shock, fear and an overwhelming feeling of happiness came over Nathan.

"That's…" he started but stopped. "That's wonderful." Haley looked at him in surprise.

"Really?" she asked. Nathan nodded.

"I mean, I agree; it is a little soon, but there's not much we can do about it now," he said. Haley smiled. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," she replied.

"Will you marry me?" he asked. Haley sat back and looked at him in amazement.

"Yes," she blurted out. He smiled at her.


	24. You Can't Please Everyone

**You Can't Please Everyone **(Chapter twenty-four)

Deb Scott walked into her son's hospital room and frowned when she saw his girlfriend, Haley James, sitting at his side. That was her place right now. Nathan was her son and if the papers said about her condition, she may have ruined his life. She placed flowers onto the counter and walked over to them. "Hi, Mom," he said. Deb smiled.

"Hi, Mrs. Scott," Haley said. Deb frowned at her and put her purse down on Nathan's bed.

"Haley, can you excuse us for a minute? I need to talk to my son for a few minutes," Deb said. Haley looked at her in confusion but nodded to her respectfully. When she was gone, Nathan turned to look at her in wonder.

"Mom, what's going on? You sound upset," Nathan asked. Deb sat down and took one of her son's hands and then put it down.

"I am upset. I found something out that was very disturbing to me," Deb said.

"What is it?" Nathan asked.

"Honey, I hate to be the one to tell you this but I have to because from what I walked in on, it's obvious that Haley hasn't," Deb said. Nathan smirked. He was pretty sure he knew what she was going to tell him. "She's done something horrible to you."

"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked, not entirely convinced he knew anymore.

"Nathan, Haley is pregnant," Deb said. Nathan looked at her in confusion.

"And?" he asked.

"Did you hear what I just said? Nathan, Haley is pregnant, with child, bun in the oven," Deb said. Nathan nodded. "How can you be so calm about this? When I found out, I almost had a panic attack. I thought that girl had some sense in her. I thought I could count on her to treat you fairly and not only is she seventeen and pregnant, but she didn't even tell you and now she's going to drag you down with her."

"Mom!" Nathan exclaimed. Deb stopped ranting and looked at him in amazement. Then it seemed to dawn on her.

"You already know, don't you?" she asked. Nathan nodded.

"Haley told me a few hours ago," he replied.

"And you're ok with this?" Deb asked flabbergasted.

"Well, I admit that I didn't plan on it happening, but, yeah, I'm ok with it," Nathan said. Deb just stared at him.

"Are you out of your mind? How can you be so nonchalant and cavalier about this? This is a baby we're talking about, Nathan. It's not like a basketball jersey or something or even a puppy. It's an actual human being that will depend upon you and Haley for everything," Deb exclaimed.

"I know that, Mom, but it's mine and Haley's baby. That's how I can be so calm about it," Nathan said.

"How could she do this to you? I was so wrong about her," Deb demanded. Just then, Haley walked in and looked at them.

"I heard shouting. Is everything all right?" Haley asked. Nathan winced as he saw his mother turn around and glare at Haley. He could tell that she was about to pounce on an unsuspecting Haley. She had just come into make sure they were all right and she was about to be attacked.

"How could you be so stupid, Haley?" Deb demanded. Haley looked at Nathan and then back at Deb. Her first reaction was surprise, but her anger at the sudden burst of anger from Deb was slowly mounting.

"Do I know what you're talking about?" Haley asked. Her voice was completely calm. Haley had this amazing ability to remain level-headed even in times when it was expected for a person to be emotional. Her tone had been tinged with annoyance and her basic no-nonsense attitude. She didn't take crap from people. If someone talked to her like his mom was, she would listen but she wouldn't be a doormat and he loved it about her.

"How could you let yourself get pregnant, ruining my son's life and, trust me on this, your own?" Deb asked. Haley's eyes narrowed and already Nathan could see her eyes blazing.

"First of all, it takes two. I didn't climb on top of myself and get pregnant. I had help. Second, I didn't let myself get pregnant. It happened. You of all people should understand that these things happen," Haley said. Deb glared at her.

"Mom, Haley and I are getting married," Nathan said. Deb looked at her son in astonishment.

"Excuse me?" Deb asked. Nathan explained what they had decided. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Mom," Nathan started but Deb held her hand up.

"You're not getting married, Nathan," Deb said. Haley and Nathan looked at each other.

"Mom, you can't stop me," Nathan said.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong. I sure as hell can. You need parents' permission to get married at your age, and while Haley's parents may be willing to give it to you which is enough said for their parenting skills right there, but I am not. And neither will your father," Deb said. Nathan looked at her in dismay. He looked at Haley, who was standing in the corner of the room. He could tell that she was struggling with her emotions right now.

"You can't do this to me," he said. Deb looked at him sympathetically.

"Nathan, you are going to thank me for this one day. You and Haley may be in love now, but love fades especially when you're seventeen. I'm laying down the law. Not only are you two not getting married, but you're not allowed to date anymore," Deb said. Nathan and Haley looked at each other in alarm.

"What!" They both exclaimed.

"I mean it. I will not let you tear down my son, Haley," Deb said, coming over and grabbing Haley by the arm.

"Mom, be careful. She's pregnant, remember?" Nathan said, trying to get up but his gut hurt too much for him to move. He couldn't stop Deb from pushing Haley out of the room.

Over the next few months, Haley and Nathan were kept apart. Nathan was still in the hospital recovering and Deb had forbid Haley to set within ten feet of his hospital room. She had even gone as far as to put a restraining order to prevent Haley from seeing Nathan. At first, Nathan and Haley ignored Deb's rules and interfering but after the restraining order was put into place, Nathan told Haley to keep her distance until his mom cooled down. But Deb never did. She remained adamant about keeping Nathan and Haley apart.

Three months later…

Haley walked out of the doctor's office and got into her car and sat there for a few minutes as she let the tears fall. She had just gone to her second sonogram appointment and she stared at the picture of her and Nathan's daughter. She had just found out that they were going to have a girl. And Nathan had missed it.

She knew that it wasn't by choice, but part of her couldn't help but resent Nathan for not helping her through this. It was his baby too, after all and he had not been there. Then she felt a whole new kind of anger at his mother for driving them apart, putting her through the last few months and making her resent Nathan. She put her car into gear and drove away.

She pulled into the school parking lot and grabbed her book bag and carried the rest of her books in her arms. She had been taking some night courses to make up for the time she would soon need to take off from school when the baby would be born. She had always taken extra courses in summer school so she was pretty far ahead compared to others in her grade. She saw the familiar faces of Peyton and Brooke walking towards Lucas, Jake and Tim and Haley longed to go over there to ask them how Nathan was but thought better of it and headed toward the tutoring centre. She had not only cut herself off from Nathan, but her friends too since they were his as well. She could revert back to who she had been before just until Deb cooled down, if that ever happened.

Nathan got out of Lucas' car and sighed as he saw the school. "One good thing about getting shot was that I never had to come here," he said. Lucas smirked and sighed.

"Please. You were bored out of your mind at the hospital and you know you're not here just for school," Lucas said. Nathan looked at him in confusion. "You came to see Haley, Nate. I know that even if you don't." Nathan shook his head.

"No way, Luke. I mean, yeah, of course I want to see her. I haven't seen her in months and I miss her like you can't even believe but with my mom, I figure she has warned the staff," Nathan said. Lucas nodded.

"Don't get me wrong. I love Aunt Deb, but I just think that what she's doing is wrong. Forget about what she's doing to you, which is bad. But what about what she's doing to Haley?" Lucas asked. Nathan nodded. "I mean, she was pregnant with you around Haley's age and Dan stuck by her by choice and she took that for granted. That doesn't happen all the time. And now she's not letting you stick by Haley."

"How is Haley?" Nathan asked. Lucas shrugged.

"I've seen her around, but I haven't actually really spoken to her. She doesn't really talk to us anymore," Lucas said.

"She's just trying to make things easier on all of us," Nathan said, feeling even worse about what she was going through. She was being put through the wringer and yet she still had a good enough heart not to drag their friends in the middle of it.

"From what I've seen of her, though, she's doing all right. She seems a little lonely, but she looks fine, if you're worried about her and the baby," Lucas said.

"I'm sure she would've told you if something were wrong," Peyton said, coming over and hugging Nathan. "Welcome back." Nathan smirked at Peyton.

"Look, I got to get to Brooke's locker. Apparently, she has something to show me," Lucas said.

"I'll walk him to his locker and meet you in the cafeteria," Peyton said, giggling as Nathan glared at her. They continued walking and Nathan put some things in his locker and grabbed other things. Then they walked towards the cafeteria. "Dude, we've got to stop by the tutoring centre," Peyton said.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"I need to talk to my tutor," Peyton said, as if it were the dumbest question.

"You have a tutor?" Nathan asked in disbelief mixed with amusement. Peyton nodded. "Why?"

"Because math and I are not the best of friends and my tutor's like a math whiz," Peyton said. Nathan cracked up and followed her to the tutoring centre. Peyton walked in and went up to a guy and they started chatting. Nathan leaned against the door and then felt like an idiot so he walked in. That's when he saw her.

Her hair was longer, her skin shone with a sort of glow now and she had gained a little weight to her stomach and he felt a burst of happiness as he realized that it was their child changing her like this. Then she turned around from the conversation she had been carrying on with a girl that was a year or so younger and froze. He smiled at her and she got up from her chair and walked over to him. "Hi," she said. He smiled.

"Hey," he said. They stood there staring at each other for a minute and then Haley took a step forward and threw herself to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. At first, Nathan was caught off guard but then he pulled his arms around her back and pulled her closer and tightened his arms around her. He could feel her soft crying. Then she pulled back and looked up at him.

"I missed you," she said. Nathan smiled.

"I missed you too," he said. "Both of you." Haley reached up and ran her hand across his cheek as she leaned up and kissed him. Meanwhile, Peyton was over at another table with Mouth and was smiling at the moment Haley and Nathan were sharing.

"You're a good friend to have brought them together again," Mouth said. Peyton nodded.

"And thank you for helping me do it," Peyton said, slapping Mouth a high five for a job well done.

"I still can't believe Nathan thought you needed at tutor," Mouth said.

"I can't believe he thought you were my tutor," Peyton said and they both laughed.


	25. Trapped in a Bad Situation

**Trapped in a Bad Situation But Still Moving Forward **(Chapter twenty-five)

Nathan walked out of his bedroom that morning and almost made it out of the house without a word until he ran into his mom in the parking lot as she was getting ready to leave for work. "Oh, hi, sweetie," she said. Nathan just scoffed as he made his way to his own car. Deb shut her door and walked over to him. "So, you're just not going to talk to me now?" she asked.

"I don't know what to say to you, Mom," he said. He turned around to face her so she could see how much pain she was causing him. She looked away when confronted with it.

"I know you're hurting, Nathan, but this is for the best," she said.

"For who, Mom? For me, Haley, our baby?" Nathan asked. Deb looked down. "Or for you?" Deb looked up at him.

"This isn't about me," she said.

"Isn't it? You're doing this because you resent Haley because you think she's like you," Nathan said accusingly.

"That's absurd," Deb said.

"No, it's the truth. When you and Dad were drifting apart, you got pregnant with me and him being the guy that he is, you knew he wouldn't just walk away from us. You got pregnant to make your boyfriend stay with you and even then he didn't do it right away. You resent Haley because you think she's doing the same thing you did and because her boyfriend didn't hesitate to commit himself to her," Nathan said.

"That's not…" Deb started.

"Well, that's not Haley," Nathan said.

"I know that Haley is a good person, Nathan. I wouldn't have allowed you to date her as long as you did if I didn't. But I don't think she deserves all of your praise and adoration. Given the right motivation, there's no telling what people will do," Deb said.

"Well, those 'people' aren't Haley. I know her, Mom. And if you're not concerned with what you're doing to her, then think about what you're doing to me," Nathan said.

"I'm helping you," she said.

"How are you helping me by keeping me away from my _pregnant_ fiancée?" Nathan asked. Deb looked at him as he said 'fiancée'. "I love Haley and I want to be there for her. Why won't you let me be?"

"Because, believe it or not, I want you to have a better life than I did," she said. He looked at her in shock.

"Well, I'm sorry that I ruined your life, but it wasn't my fault that you got pregnant on purpose, so it's no excuse for you to try to ruin mine," Nathan said, getting in his car and pulling away.

Haley sighed as she walked out of school and realized she forgot her purse in her locker that had her car keys in it. Just the thought of walking all that way made her want to vomit, not to mention that she was already feeling sick. She looked around to see if there was anyone she knew that she could walk with, but realized that there wasn't, shrugged and walked back inside. The minute she walked through the second set of doors into the hallway, she saw Nathan and the rest of the basketball team exiting the locker room. Their eyes met and he stopped walking and half-smiled at her. "Scott, come on!" Whitey yelled. Instead of listening to Whitey, he walked over to Haley.

"Is everything all right?" Nathan asked, as he got closer to her. Haley nodded.

"I just have to get my purse from my locker," she replied, pulling away from his touch. It just made her want to throw herself in his arms and while he probably wouldn't have a problem with that, his mom would. He looked at her in concern.

"You're going to walk all that way by yourself?" he asked. She nodded, looking down as Whitey continued to yell at Nathan. The rest of the team was already in the gymnasium. Then, Whitey walked over to them.

"Nathan, when I talk to you, you damn well listen!" Whitey exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, Coach," Nathan said. Whitey looked so shocked that Nathan had apologized, he shut his mouth. They had a routine down. Nathan would do something, sometimes intentionally, to make him yell and when he did, Nathan would talk back and they argued for a few minutes back and forth. "Coach, I'm going to walk Haley to her locker and then back to her car, ok?" Nathan looked at his coach pleadingly and looked at Haley as if he were communicating some sort of secret message that she couldn't interpret.

"Well, all right. Just make sure that you do show up for practice," Whitey said. Haley chuckled.

"Thanks, Coach," Nathan replied. Whitey turned to Haley and smiled. Nathan knew why; Whitey was fond of Haley. Everyone was. Haley smirked back.

"You take care of yourself," Whitey said. Haley smirked and nodded. He walked away from them and when he was in the gymnasium, Nathan put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

"Thank God he said yes. I've been looking for an excuse to spend a little more than two minutes with you," he said. Haley wrapped her right arm around his waist and hugged him back as she chuckled softly. They started walking towards her locker with Haley leaning against him for support. When they reached it, Haley leaned against the wall for support again. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Haley replied, softly chuckling. She put her hand on her stomach as she said, "We're fine. I just get tired when I walk a long time."

"So, everything has been ok, right? Your doctor's appointments. Everything's checked out?" he asked. Haley laughed at his wording but nodded. "I hate that I can't be there with you," he said. She nodded.

"I know. I do have a few things to tell you, though. And I have something to give you, but it's in my car," she replied.

"Well, when we get there, you can tell me whatever it is," Nathan said. She opened her locker and grabbed her purse off of the hook she had placed it on when she was loading her bag and then closed the locker. When they reached the car, Haley took off on her own and opened the door. She sat down in the driver's seat and opened the glove box and grabbed a small bag. She turned her legs so they were hanging out the side of the car to face Nathan who was leaning against the rear passenger door. She opened the bag and grabbed a small piece of paper and handed it to him. He took a look at it and saw that there was a caption on the weird picture. It said "James-Scott baby". He looked at her and smiled.

"We're having a daughter," she replied, smiling at his expression that was filled with love. He leaned down and kissed her. When he pulled away, there were a few tears running down his face.

"I love you so much. Thank you for giving this to me," he said, leaning into kiss her again before she could get a word out.

"That's not all," she said. He looked at her in expectance. "I told my parents everything."

"Everything?" he repeated.

"That I'm pregnant, that you're the father and that we're engaged," Haley replied.

"How'd they take the news?" he asked.

"Not well," Haley replied. He frowned. "At first, anyway." He brightened and looked at her again. "After talking about it, they have given us their support and my mom gave me this to give to you." She reached in the bag and pulled out a small box and handed it to him. He opened it and inside was a ring.

"What is this for?" he asked.

"It was my grandmother's engagement ring and my mom wants you to have it to give to me," she replied.

"Are you serious? Your mom actually gave you this?" he asked. Haley nodded as he took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly, almost as if the ring knew that it would wind up on Haley's finger at some time.

"But she stresses that we're to wait until we have your parents' permission to get married," Haley said, laughing. Nathan nodded and kissed her left hand.

"My mom will come around, Haley. I promise she will. And if she doesn't come around on her own, then I'll talk to my dad," he replied. Haley looked at him for a minute.

"Nathan, I'm not sure your mother will ever be all right with this," she said.

"Well, I'm willing to accept that, but I will not let her let me become an absent father or just your boyfriend," Nathan said. Haley scrunched her eyebrows.

"Just my boyfriend?" Haley repeated. She didn't realize that being her boyfriend was such a bad thing. He shook his head as if he knew what she was thinking.

"I know what you're thinking and that's not what I mean," he said, looking at her insistently.

"Then, what do you mean?" she asked, a little bit of frustration in her voice. Nathan took her hands into his and squeezed them lightly.

"When I asked you to marry me, I didn't do that just because you're pregnant. Yes, that was a contributing factor but I didn't have to ask you. I wanted to," he replied. Haley nodded.

"Ok," she said.

"I mean it, Haley. I want us to stand before God and swear that we'll always love each other. I want to be your husband. I want a future with you. I want to be with you in every sense of the word," he said. Haley smiled but then started crying. Nathan looked at her in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just these damn hormones!" Haley exclaimed as she grabbed three tissues at a time and started wiping her face. Nathan smirked at her in amusement. "It's not funny! I've just about had it with them. I cry all the time. I cry when I'm sad, when I'm mad and when I'm happy. I'm like a huge crying machine," Haley said, still wiping her face. Nathan took a fresh tissue and started dabbing at her the bottom of her eyes, careful not to poke her in the eye with it.

"I think you're cute," he said.

"Yeah, I bet you do. You're the one that did this to me," she said. He laughed at her again. "Don't laugh at me or I will make you cry." He looked at her in amusement.

"And what would you do?" he asked.

"I'd, um… take away that picture I gave you," she said. He looked at her in shock. Then she shook her head. "No, I wouldn't. I would never do that. I love you and I want to be with you too." He smirked and leaned in for one last kiss.

"I'm glad we agree. I'll see you…" he said, but his sentence trailed off when he realized he had no idea when he'd see her next. Haley smirked and nodded.

"Soon," she finished. He smiled and waited until she had closed the door to start walking away.

Two hours later…

Haley arrived at the café with a few minutes to spare. She got behind the counter and smiled at Karen. She was so glad that Deb didn't work there anymore. Deb had gotten involved in the Foundation she had worked at before the café again. While she was still Karen's business partner, she never worked behind the counter anymore which was good because they got to keep more of their dishes, as Karen had put it. "Cutting it a little close today, aren't we?" Karen asked.

"I was talking to someone," Haley replied. Karen raised her eyebrows in fascination.

"Who?" Karen asked. Haley was about to answer but closed her mouth when she remembered that Karen and Deb were friends as well as family. Karen noticed her hesitation and asked, "Well, who was it?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you," Haley replied, as she began filling some sugar canisters. She had long since stopped going from each individual table and filing them. She brought them all to the counter, filled them and if someone else didn't put them back which they usually did, she put them back.

"I am friends with Deb, Haley, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything she does," Karen said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Haley asked.

"It was Nathan you were talking to, wasn't it?" Karen asked. Haley looked at her in confusion. Karen pointed to the ring on her finger. "Your mom told me about it." Haley smiled.

"Yeah, it was Nathan," Haley confirmed. She looked around and almost dropped the sugar bag when Dan and Keith Scott walked in.

"Hey, you two!" Karen said. She kissed Keith and nodded at Dan, who smiled at her in acknowledgement. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I wanted to see my wife," Keith said. Keith looked at Dan and gestured something with his eyes. Dan cleared his throat.

"I wanted to talk to Haley," he admitted. Haley rolled her eyes but turned to face him. "How are you doing?" He gestured to her and then her stomach.

"I am fine," she said pointing to herself. "But I'm sure that if the baby were born, she would miss her father." She was through with the good little girl routine when it came to Nathan's parents. She had been patient and understanding for three whole months. She was tired of having just moments with Nathan. She wanted him back for good.

"Her?" Keith, Karen and Dan all repeated. Haley nodded.

"Look, Haley, I'm not the one that forbid Nathan to see you," Dan said. 

"Right," Haley said unconvinced. Dan nodded insistently at her. She nodded. "But you didn't do anything about it, did you? You didn't try to talk to your wife."

"Deb is not always what you call a reasonable woman," Dan said. Haley smirked at him.

"I got that. Most people would find it reasonable for a guy to be there for his pregnant fiancée," Haley said. Dan nodded.

"I understand how you feel and no one blames you for being angry, but as you said, Deb is my wife and I have to support her," Dan said.

"Of course you have to support her," Haley said agreeably. He nodded in appreciation, missing Haley's sarcasm. Then Haley frowned. "But not when she's being crazy." Then, she turned around and walked away with the sugar canisters. Dan nodded.

"Enough said," he muttered before turning back to his brother and sister-in-law.

"So, a funny thing happened today," Peyton commented as Jake, Nathan, Tim, Brooke and Lucas were all eating in the cafeteria the next day.

"What's that?" Brooke asked. Peyton smiled.

"I walked into the tutoring centre to talk to Mouth, who was getting tutored by Haley," Peyton said.

"That's not very interesting," Brooke commented, but Peyton held up a finger.

"So, naturally, I chatted with Haley and I noticed a little something on one of her fingers," Peyton commented and smirked when she saw Nathan visibly stiffen.

"What?" Jake asked.

"I saw an engagement ring on her finger," she announced. They all turned to look at Nathan for an explanation.

"You gave Haley a ring?" Lucas asked.

"You two are engaged?" Tim asked.

"When did you speak to Haley?" Jake asked.

"Where'd you get the ring?" Brooke asked. They all asked simultaneously but very quickly so Nathan shook his head in annoyance.

"We've been engaged since I found out she was pregnant. I gave her, her grandmother's ring which her mother gave to her to give to me and I spoke to her yesterday," Nathan replied.

"Aunt Deb hasn't seen it, has she?" Luke asked. Nathan looked at Lucas and smirked.

"And when would my mom see Haley?" Nathan retorted. All of a sudden, a student came running into the cafeteria looking around frantically. She walked over to their table. Brooke looked like she was going to pounce on her.

"You're that pregnant tutor's fiancé right?" she asked. Nathan looked up at her and nodded. "Come quick. Something's wrong with her. She's in pain, she wants you and they called an ambulance," the girl explained on the way to the tutoring centre. Nathan raced to Haley's side. She was wincing and grunting in pain.

"Nathan!" Haley managed to say in between the crushing waves of pain flowing through her. "It hurts. Something's wrong." He sat behind her cross-legged so Haley could lean against him. He kissed her forehead. 

"It's ok. They called an ambulance. Help's on the way. Just hold on," he said, soothingly, though he was scared out of his mind.


	26. Let Love Win

**Let Love Win **(Chapter twenty-six)

"This is ridiculous! I'm not a baby," Haley exclaimed from her wheelchair as Nathan walked beside her as the nurse pushed her back to her hospital room.

"No, but you're going to have one and they're just being extra careful, which we should be grateful for. Especially after you little episode today," he said, putting his hand down on her shoulder to relax her.

"An episode? It's called 'false labour', Nathan, and it happens to plenty of women all the time," she said sternly. She didn't like to be treated like an invalid.

"Whatever. They're still being careful and I for one am glad," he said. The nurse smiled at them and offered to help Haley back into her bed. Haley shook her head and smiled at her in appreciation. The nurse nodded and walked away. She got up from her wheelchair and climbed into her hospital bed. Nathan helped her get the covers over her and sat down beside her on the bed. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

"Even if it does happen to plenty of women, it scared the hell out of me to see you in so much pain and not be able to help you," he said. She leaned back and kissed him.

"Just being there with me was helping me," she said and snuggled into his shoulder.

"The doctor said we can leave after they get an ultrasound just to make sure that everything's all right," he said.

"Oh, you're going to get to see the baby!" she exclaimed. He looked at her in amusement.

"How?" he asked.

"By the ultrasound. They rub it over my stomach and you get to see a picture of the baby and hear the heartbeat and stuff," Haley explained.

"Wouldn't the baby be too small to see? And it would look kind of weird wouldn't it?" he asked.

"Well, it won't be a fully formed baby, Nathan. I'm only three months pregnant. And besides, you can still see parts of the baby," she said.

"I don't believe that," he said. She started to talk about how incredible the feeling was and then looked up at him to see that he was keeping biting his lip to make sure he didn't laugh.

"You're making fun of me!" she exclaimed.

"Pretty much," he said and laughed as she punched him.

"Don't tease me, Nathan. It's not funny," she said. He could tell that she was about to cry before the tears started flowing.

"Oh, Hales, I'm sorry. I was only kidding," he said, pulling her closer. She turned her head away from him and pretended to cry. Then he turned her face to see that she was laughing at him.

"Now that's how you tease someone," she said proudly. He laughed and kissed her again.

"Nathan!" Deb Scott exclaimed as she walked into Haley's hospital room. She was seething when she saw that he was sitting in a bed, holding Haley.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"The principal called me and told you left the school in an ambulance. What happened to you and what is she doing here with you?" Deb asked.

"Mom, I wasn't the one that was hurt," Nathan said. Deb looked at him in confusion.

"I was. I went into false labour and I had to be rushed to the hospital. Nathan just came with me," Haley said.

"He has classes, Haley. The last thing he needs is to be distracted from his schoolwork," Deb said.

"Mom, I needed to be here for Haley and our baby. Something could've happened to them. I wasn't about to let her go there and possibly give birth alone," Nathan said.

"Fine. Come home now, Nathan," Deb said. Nathan scoffed.

"Mom, I'm not going anywhere without my fiancée," he said. Deb glared at him. "You need to let this go, Mom. Haley is not you. She's not trapping me into anything and I'm not going to be without her anymore. We will get married with or without your permission."

"And how do you plan on getting around that?" Deb asked.

"I'll sign the papers," Dan said, coming into the room. Deb turned around and glared at him.

"What?" Deb exclaimed.

"Nathan's right, Deb. We've kept these two apart long enough. They need to be together. They're a family now and I know you don't want your grandchild to grow up in a broken home," Dan said. Deb shook her head. "And we've tortured Haley enough as well." Deb stopped to think for a minute. Dan glared at her.

"I have something to ask of you before I give you my permission," Deb said.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"You will be married in our Church and the baby will be baptized," Deb said, explaining that she wanted the baby to be Catholic.

"Mrs. Scott," Haley said. Deb turned to her. "The baby will be a Catholic. There was never a question about that." She was laughing.

"What is so funny?" Deb and Dan asked. Haley and Nathan just looked at each other.

"Well, I'm a Catholic too," Haley said. They all nodded and Dan and Deb left. Haley was still angry until Nathan wrapped his arms around her again.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"What?" she asked.

"We're actually getting married," he said, kissing her head. Haley smiled. 

"It seems like it's taken forever to just be allowed to," Haley said. He nodded in agreement.

"I can't wait," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"I can't wait to take you home as my wife. To wake up with you every day and see your beautiful face peaceful as you're sleeping," he said.

"You sound like a stalker," she joked.

"I'm worse. I'm going to be your old ball and chain," he said. Haley laughed at him and turned around and kissed him.


	27. Fall to Pieces

**Fall to Pieces **(Chapter twenty-seven)

Three weeks later…

/Flashback/

Nathan came into Haley's room at her parents' house and sat down beside her. She was staring at her wedding dress and her face was twisted with disgust. "This is the ugliest dress I've ever seen," she said. Nathan chuckled.

"Then, why'd you pick it?" he asked. She turned and looked at him in outrage.

"I didn't PICK it. It was my mom's. Did you know that in my family, the daughters wear their mother's wedding dresses?" Haley asked. Nathan smirked.

"So, what, this dress is like four hundred years old?" Nathan asked. Haley swatted him on the shoulder.

"You're missing the point, Scott," Haley said.

"Hales, it's a nice dress," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief. "What's really wrong?" Haley looked down.

"I don't like the dress," Haley said and looked at him as if he were crazy.

"So get a new one," he suggested.

"I will," she said firmly.

"This is hormones, isn't it?" he asked. Haley glared up at him.

"What does that mean?" she asked as she continued to look up at him warningly.

"Never mind," he said.

"Good answer," she said. She reached out her hand and pulled him down beside her. "Can you believe that in less than two months we're going to be married?" Nathan smiled, careful to keep the guilt off his face. He knew he should tell her, but it would kill her.

"I can't wait," he said, pulling her closer to him. He kissed the top of her head and put his hand on her stomach.

/End of Flashback/

"Haley and I aren't engaged anymore," Nathan admitted to his father and mother. Dan and Deb looked at him in shock.

"Say what?" Dan asked.

"Nathan, everything's set. We've got the church booked, the invitations are sent, and the dresses are bought. What happened?" Deb asked.

/Flashback/

"When?" Haley asked. Nathan looked down. He couldn't meet her steely gaze.

"While we were apart," he replied. Haley scoffed.

"You mean when I was going to doctor's appointments all by myself?" Haley asked. They were in his bedroom. He was sitting at his desk chair and Haley had just got up from his bed.

"Yeah," he replied. Haley's face crumpled as she shook her head in amazement.

"Unbelievable," she said.

"I'm sorry," he said. Haley glared at him.

"You were really going to do it, weren't you?" she asked.

"What?" he asked.

"You were going to marry me, walk down the aisle, have a family with me without ever telling me the truth," Haley said.

"I don't know," he said.

"Well, you don't have to wonder anymore because I'm not marrying you," she said, hoisting herself up and heading towards the door.

/End of Flashback/

"Because Haley doesn't want to marry me," Nathan said.

"Why not?" Deb asked, almost angrily.

"Because I cheated on her," Nathan said.

"You what?" Dan and Deb exclaimed.

"With Brooke," he replied.

"Lucas' girlfriend?" Dan asked in disbelief.

"And now she might be pregnant," Nathan said.


	28. There's Nothing Deadlier Than

**There's Nothing Deadlier Than a Woman Scorned **(Chapter twenty-eight)

/Flashback/

"Go away!" Haley James exclaimed as she slammed the door in Nathan's face, but Nathan stuck his foot out and blocked it. Then he put his arm through and warned her to step aside otherwise she'd get hurt. She was already bounding up the steps and into her room by the time he got into the hall.

He followed her into her room and sighed as she returned to the boxes that she was now unpacking. They had spent the entire weekend packing her room up to move the stuff over to his place. "Haley, we should talk about this," he said. Haley chuckled.

"You're right. You do know that breaking and entering is a felony right?" she asked.

"That's not what I was talking about," he replied.

"Well, that's all I'm willing to say to you right now," Haley said, folding her arms across her chest indignantly. Nathan's eyes travelled down to her stomach, which was growing bigger by the week with their child inside of her.

"Haley, we need to work this out… for her," he said. Haley followed his gaze and laughed at her.

"Uh-uh. There's no way you get to make me feel guilty here. And don't use her as a bargaining chip," Haley said.

"I'm not. I'm thinking of her," he said.

"You should have thought about her before you slept with Brooke and knocked her up," Haley said, getting up and walking to the window. "Speaking of which, how is the back-stabbing bitch?"

"This isn't about Brooke. Can we just leave her out of it?" Nathan said. Haley laughed at him.

"We wouldn't even be having this conversation if it weren't for her," Haley said.

"It takes two, Hales," Nathan reminded her. Haley chuckled.

"Well, I certainly didn't sleep with her," Haley said sarcastically.

"I meant that I was a willing participant. It's not all Brooke's fault," he said. Haley nodded.

"Well, at least you're man enough to admit your part in it. You're not going to try to blame it all on her," Haley said, nodding. There were tears flowing down her face.

"I'm man enough to admit when I've made a mistake," he said. Haley smirked.

"It doesn't change anything, Nathan. We're still over," she said, shaking her head.

"Haley, come on. We can work through this," he said. Haley shook her head.

"No, we can't, Nathan. You know how I feel about Brooke. You know what I was going through then all alone and you just didn't care," Haley exclaimed.

"That's not true," Nathan insisted. Haley shrugged and told him to leave. He sighed and walked away.

/End of Flashback/

Now almost a month later, Nathan was standing at Haley's door about to tell her news that would no doubt devastate her. He knocked on the door just as Haley opened it and sighed when she saw him standing there. "What do you want?" she asked. He looked at her. She was bigger than the last time he had seen her and she was dressed in a frilly white top with a long flowing blue skirt.

"I need to talk to you," he said. Haley rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Please."

"Fine," Haley said, leading the way back inside and into the kitchen. She leaned against the counter and looked at him expectantly.

"How are you?" he asked, looking at her and then her stomach. Haley looked at him sympathetically.

"Everything is fine," she said somewhat reassuringly. He nodded and looked around uncomfortably. He shifted his weight a few times and Haley grew frustrated. "Nathan, what is it?"

"Um…" he started. Haley looked at him expectantly. "I'm engaged." Haley blinked rapidly. Then, she let out a breath.

"To Brooke?" she squeaked. He could see her eyes beginning to fill with unshed tears. Then, he nodded. Haley straightened herself and walked a few steps. She opened her mouth to speak but then looked at him and closed it. Now she felt an incredible stabbing pain in her back and tried to reach out to grab something to hold onto for support but was too late and came crashing down, her head connected to the hard floor and she was out like a light.

Four hours later…

Nathan sighed as he walked into Haley's hospital room. Haley was stirring so she was just waking up. He walked over and sat down beside her just in time for her to open her eyes. "Nathan? What happened?" she asked.

"You, uh, collapsed," he replied brokenly, wiping away fresh tears.

"Why?" she asked. He just looked at her with pain in his eyes. She shook her head as tears spilled out of her eyes. "Don't tell me…"

"I'm sorry, Haley. We lost the baby," he said.

"No," Haley said shaking her head in disbelief. "No, no, no." He leaned forward and pulled her to him. He knew she probably hated him but they needed to get through the loss of their baby together. She muttered something.

"What?" he asked.

"How?" she asked. "What did I do wrong?"

"The umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck and she died. There's nothing you could've done to prevent it," he replied pulling her closer. Haley nodded in understanding. Then, a few seconds later, her face crumpled as she began sobbing into his chest.

"Our baby, Nathan," she said brokenly.

"Shh," he said through his own tears as he sat down on her bed and held her in his arms, wanting to shield her from the harsh reality. "They're going to perform an emergency c-section in a few minutes. I thought that you should know beforehand." Haley nodded at him.

An hour later…

A doctor came out of the room and walked over to him and looked at him pitifully. "Nathan Scott?"

"Yes," Nathan replied, nodding. "How's Haley?" The doctor swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, son," he said. Nathan looked at him in confusion. "But she didn't make it."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed in disbelief.

"The doctors were closing and your girlfriend went into cardiac arrest. We did everything we could but we were unable to save her," he said. Nathan stared at him and then looked around.

"Haley's dead?" he asked, processing the information. The doctor nodded sadly. "Noooo!"

Nathan, covered in sweat, sprung up. Then, he looked around and realized he was in his bedroom. He was confused as to how he got there but then he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Nathan, what is it?" Haley asked. He turned to face her.

"Haley?" he said.

"What's wrong?" she asked, running her hand along his arm and making him face her. He looked at her, noticing her grandmother's ring still on her finger and that she was still pregnant. He sighed as he pulled her against him into a crushing embrace. He began to kiss her fervently. He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, above her eyes, below them, her mouth, and her chin until she pulled away and looked at him in alarm.

"Nathan, what's bothering you?" she asked, clearly confused. He smiled and hugged her again.

"Nothing," he said. She shrugged in his embrace.

"Are you sure?" she murmured against his shoulder. He smiled and nodded.

"It was just a dream," he said, smiling against her mouth as they kissed.


	29. For Better or For Worse

**For Better or For Worse **(Chapter twenty-nine)

Haley sat down in the room that had been given to her, as the bride, to get ready at the Church. She was wearing a simple baby blue dress that flew down just below her ankles. It was a dress that Brooke had offered to size for her. At first, Haley had been hesitant to trust Brooke but after realizing how much she liked the dress and seeing some of her other dresses, she had decided to give Brooke a chance. Brooke's talent had surprised Haley. Haley was positive that her only talents lie in getting drunk, being bitchy and manipulating otherwise smart and intelligent guys like Lucas.

"Tutor Girl, I'm ready to start your hair," Brooke said, popping her head into the room. Haley turned around and nodded. Brooke smiled in approval at the dress. She came over and forced Haley to sit down in front of the mirror. Brooke started brushing her hair. "You're going to look great." Haley smiled in appreciation.

"Have you seen Nathan?" Haley asked. Brooke smiled and chuckled to herself as she nodded. "How is he?"

"He's jittery as hell. I swear, for someone who's usually so confident, you'd never know it. Earlier on, when Tim played a joke on him, saying he forgot the rings at the bachelor party yesterday, Nathan almost threw him out the doors," Brooke commented. Haley chuckled.

"He probably just doesn't want to leave anything to chance," Haley said. Brooke nodded and then leaned down and looked at her mischievously.

"I think that when the priest asks you if you take him as your husband, you should say no just to see the reaction on Nathan's face," Brooke said and laughed at her own idea. Haley gasped.

"That would kill him," Haley said. Brooke shrugged.

"It's just an idea," she said.

"Well, I think I'll pass on hurting Nathan not even one day into our marriage if that's all right with you," Haley said, shaking her head. Brooke moved away from Haley as she finished with her hair and stepped back to admire her work.

"You really love him, don't you?" Brooke asked thoughtfully.

"More than anyone in the world," Haley replied without missing a beat. Brooke smiled.

"I'm really happy for you two," Brooke said. Haley looked at her in surprise. "I know that when you first started dating him, I wasn't very supportive or nice, but I thought you were just going to end up hurting Nathan. But I was really wrong. I look at him now and he's happier than he's ever been and that's because of you." Haley smiled before some tears spilled out of her eyes. Brooke looked at her apologetically. "Haley, don't cry. I'm sorry." Haley shook her head.

"Aww. Oh, that's such a nice thing to say," Haley gushed. Then Haley cursed her hormones. Brooke laughed.

"You're welcome," Brooke said before leaving.

Nathan stood, pacing nervously until the music started and he took his place beside Lucas. Everyone stood up and Haley's niece, Abigail was the first one to come down the aisle since she was the flower girl. Then Haley's bridesmaids came down the aisle. Peyton was first in line as the matron of honour and Brooke and Karen came down beside each other. Then once they were all in their places, the organ player started playing "Here Comes the Bride" but it was different version as Haley had hated the sound of the song when he first played it for them. So she had taken the music home and worked on making the changes to make it sound better.

Then Haley appeared and Nathan froze. She was absolutely stunning. Their gazes locked and Nathan couldn't help but smile. She glided down the aisle gracefully which was surprising since it was Haley. He had half expected her to fall on her face by tripping on her gown or her own shoes but today, everything about her was flawless. He took her hand and pulled her gently as they walked up to the priest together. The priest ran through the usual stuff and then it came down to the vows which they had written themselves.

"You fell for me when I was a different guy; a bad guy, some might say. I wasn't dangerous or anything, but I was a jerk. But somehow you saw through all of that. You gave me the benefit of the doubt… every time," he said. Haley chuckled as tears trickled down her face. "You helped me be the kind of guy that I've always wanted to be but for whatever reason never was. And along the way, I found the one that I want to be with for the rest of my life. My wife, the mother of my children and my love. I love you, Haley." Haley held up a hand as Nathan passed her a tissue because he knew she'd need it for today. She wiped her face and smiled up at him.

"I don't have a big speech or anything like that prepared. All I can say is that I love you, Nathan. I love you more than anyone or anything in my life and that's all that matters when you think about it; love. What else do you need?" Haley said. Nathan smiled and squeezed her hand.

"You may now kiss…" the priest started but Nathan was way ahead of him. He grabbed the back of Haley's head and anchored her to him and crushed her lips with his. The priest looked shocked. "… The bride," he finished. Everyone laughed.

"And that's how Daddy and I fell in love and got married," Haley Scott finished. She looked down at her seven-month old daughter. She smiled when she realized that Peyton Marie Scott had fallen asleep. She walked back to her bed and got in.

Almost immediately she felt Nathan's arm come around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Then his arm moved up and found one of her hands and entwined their fingers. "Everything all right, babe?" he asked sleepily. Haley turned her head and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Fine. She's asleep and I'm back in your arms," Haley whispered. Even in the dark, Haley could see Nathan smiling.

"And that's where you'll always end up," Nathan commented.

"Nathan?" Haley asked a few minutes later. Nathan groaned.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"I'm pregnant," she said. Nathan opened his eyes and looked at her in surprise. He seemed to be looking for confirmation on something. Haley just smiled. "It's a boy." Nathan responded by tightening his arm around her.

"I love you, Hales," he said.

"I love you too," Haley replied and turned around. She snuggled up to Nathan and rested her head on his chest and draped her arm across it as well. His left arm came around her back and rested on her stomach. And they both drifted off, sleeping in each other's arms like they usually did.

The End


End file.
